


Zero Hour

by Katie237



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Doppelganger, Drama, Earth-3, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Rescue Missions, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-06-30 16:42:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 62,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15755709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie237/pseuds/Katie237
Summary: When a severely injured Cisco suddenly appeared in the middle of the night with a warning that Jay Garrick is in terrible danger, Team Flash gears up. Traveling to Earth 3, they must hurry to free their speedster friend before the new threat manages to reach his goal; harnessing Garrick's speed. If they were to fail and let their new enemy gain power over his own past and destiny, consequences for Earth 3 could be disastrous. Take place after Devoe's defeat, but before Nora appeared.





	1. Warning

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome everyone in my new story. Still working on early chapters, but I figured I could still give you a quick sneak peek inside it. Hope you'll enjoy it. Don't be shy to let me know your thoughts after.

The occasional walls' creaking and the shifting of two sleeping forms on the bed were the only sounds being heard in the silent West-Allen loft unless you were to count the wind whistling through the partly opened bedroom's window. Everything was back to normal, finally; and the husband and wife duo had sure earned a well-deserved rest after defeating Devoe. It was over; Devoe was gone, Ralph was back and Joe had brought Cecile and the baby to the hospital for a complete check-up. For the first time in, well, forever since Barry got hit by lightning, the team was free of all threat looming over their heads. The whole situation seemed too good to be true, especially considering how everything had almost instantly fallen apart right after defeating Reverse Flash, Zoom or Savitar. Now, nothing. Nobody died or was forced to sacrifice themselves and the sky wasn't opening up and falling down on them.

"Barry?" Whispered Iris' voice to her husband who, still half-asleep, groaned and turned over on his right side, efficiently turning his back on her. He earned that sleep and wasn't going to let anyone steal it from him.

"Barry?" Repeated the woman, insistently, while strong shaking the hero's shoulder, "I think I heard something downstairs."

Still strongly draw by the sweet temptation of going back to his well-earned rest, Barry mumbled something incomprehensible 'til a loud thump from downstairs, like something pretty heavy fell on the floor, came to his ears and jostled him awake. Quickly prompting himself into a seated position, Barry's eyes darted around with all of his sense on high alert. Yeah, someone, or something, was definitely in their home. Pushing the sheet off his loose blue pyjama pants and shirtless chest, he jumped on the floor, "stay here," he requested to his wife before heading toward the door.

As he made his way out of the room and walked toward the stairs, he heard steps closely following him. Of course, Iris wasn't going to listen... but at least it sounded like she was keeping a safe distance and willing to let the hero do his job. Midway in the staircase, Barry stopped as his eyes finally spotted the intruder; a small looking man heavily leaning against the table as he was obviously struggling to stay on his feet. The trespasser was wearing a sleeveless hoodie with the top half of it, and the hood, being a striking yellow while the bottom part was red while the two sections were separated by a black line. Over it, the man was wearing a black sleeveless jacket with a red outline and with square relief on it, kind of what Cisco's jacket had. It was completed with black leather pants with a red line going down on both legs. Despite never having seen that outfit before, the design of it was fairly familiar, just like the small silhouette of the man with black, medium long and curly hair. That or the black and red mid-fingers gauntlets. As soon as the intruder started straightening himself up and rose his head, allowing his audience to see his red goggles with broken yellow lenses and his features underneath it, Barry gasped loudly.

"Cisco!" He exclaimed, getting to his friend's side so fast and with so much anguish he wasn't even sure if he used his superspeed or not, "what's wrong, man?"

If Cisco's struggles to stay on his feet wasn't a clear enough indication that something was terribly wrong; his bruised face, displaced and bleeding nose, and badly swollen left eye were there to confirm it.

Putting his friend's right arm around his own shoulders, Barry helped the man get back some sense of balance. Except, the instant he jostled his friend the slightest, Cisco's cried out in pain and his left arm let go of his grab on the table to go press hard against his side. Cisco's movement shifted the black jacket just enough for Barry to see the blood stain underneath it and he gasped a second time, louder than the first if that was even possible.

"Hang on, man, we'll get you help," urgently said the speedster.

"Jay… help," the breacher mouthed difficulty as he suppressed another yell of pain, making Barry frown in confusion. Jay? As in, Jay Garrick? What the hell happened since he last saw Cisco, just a few hours ago?

"Meet us at S.T.A.R. lab," Barry told his wife before taking off with the metahuman and arriving at their destination mere seconds later.

Barely taking the time to come to a stop to lay the badly wounded man down on the empty gurney in the medical bay, he took off again before returning seconds later with a second person that he let go of in the same room.

"What th-" Caitlin exclaimed who suddenly found herself standing in her pale grey pyjama pants and tight royal blue camisole at the entrance of the medical bay. What was the emergency? What was so urgent that the speedster just had to take her away from her bed in the middle of the night? Confused and half-awake, she barely got time to blink a second time as lightning moved to the medical bed, then away and closer again. The motion had her attention turning toward the bed where the speedster had stopped again, right next to it, "Barry, w…"

The sentence died on her lips as she spotted the form lying on the bed. With panic rising through the roof as she rushed right next to the bed and to the speedster, she shouted, "Cisco! What happened?"

"I don't... I don't know," Barry rambled while pressing against his struggling friend's shoulders to keep him laying as still as possible. The speedster had already taken off the odd-looking vibe glasses and the jacket, leaving Cisco only in his yellow, black and red hoodie.

"He just popped at my apartment in that state," quickly answered Barry, eyes wide open in sheer panic as, now that the jacket had been taken off, the ever-growing red puddle was the only apparent element in the room.

"Cut his clothes open," ordered the doctor as she quickly handed over the trauma shears she grabbed from the table to the hero who cut the strange clothing in a hurry as Caitlin was grabbing her medical coat off the hook near the entrance.

Barry gulped down to suppress his rising nauseous at the sight. So much blood. Too much blood. His hands were shaking as he spread the tissue apart and exposed the wound. Whipping as much blood as possible with the first thing that fell under his hands, a white S.T.A.R. towel, he managed to clean the skin enough to get a quick glimpse at the wound. The content of his stomach threatened to get out again and his hands shook harder as he finally found the source of the injury, "I think it's a bullet wound," he commented numbly.

Even if the doctor had her back turned on him, hurriedly gathering everything she needed, Barry still saw her freezing on the spot at the last sentence.

"I'll be needing your help, are you up for this?" she said, biting her lips and turning around as she starting putting her medical gloves over her hands.

"Barry!" She exclaimed, barely a couple of seconds later as she saw how the hero was frozen and quickly slipping into shock.

Jostled, Barry quickly straightened himself up and unconsciously grabbed the side of the bed with an iron grip, enough to turn his knuckles white, as he took a hold on himself, ''yeah, I am,'' he finally answered, swallowing his saliva.

Time to get to work.

The frantic activity coming from the medical room could be distinctly heard as Iris walked into the cortex wearing her brown blouse and her black pencil skirt put in a hurry, obviously, as the open section made to reveal her long leg was in her back instead of the front where it should be. Her worried increased as her glance fell on the blood on the floor, in the middle of the room. It wasn't a whole lot, but it made her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she saw how the red liquid left a trail leading all the way to the back of the room where was the mannequin. Her curiosity peaked, she approached the Flash suit, carefully avoiding to step on the red liquid with her high heels. The difference of colour tone wasn't much, but it was enough for her to distinguish the bloody fingerprints staining the superhero suit right above the yellow and white emblem.

So, had Cisco been here before coming to their apartment? Why? Why touched the suit? Something wasn't adding up. Rising her phone to her eye level once more, she pressed her speed dial and anxiously listened to the none-ending ringing.

"Please pick up, please pick up," she repeated over and over in her head 'til the ringing stopped and the answering machine took over. Sighing, Iris closed her phone. Maybe, she was wrong about this.

Moving back to the computers, she sat back on the chair and did the only thing she could; wait and think about what happened. It wasn't making any sense at all. Who attacked Cisco? What happened to him to get this wounded in only a few hours? Why was he wearing this new suit? Why come here first while knowing his best friend was resting at home? So many questions desperately needing answers.

When Barry came out of the room, at least a good hour later, he didn't look too good with his head hanging low and his hand passing in his messed-up hair. When he took the lab coat off his shirtless body, Iris winced as she saw the blood staining his muscles and his blue sleeping pants.

"Is he…" she started to ask, getting up and playing with her tangled fingers.

"He's fighting. Caitlin's with him, but she's really worried," said Barry without much energy in his voice as he moved behind the computers to sit down.

Iris turned around, to face her husband again, with her shaking lips; ''Are we sure it's our Cisco?''

Barry looked up and frowned, "what do y-" before his slow working brain suddenly connected, "you mean from another Earth?"

Iris nodded slowly and moistened her lips, "I don't want to sound insensitive to whoever is inside our medbay right now if it isn't our Cisco, but I'm just saying. I've never seen that suit before, or even these goggles, have you?"

Barry shook his head negatively, "no, I haven't. Did you try-"

Iris sighed heavily, seeing the sparkles of hope rising in the speedster's eyes at the thought that his best friend might not be badly wounded, possibly dying, "I've tried. Many times. But there's no answer."

Falling back into despair, Barry let his body slumped against his chair. Iris was right about that. While the wounded man's features were exactly like the ones of his best friend, there was nothing familiar about...everything else. Something, lots of something actually, weren't adding up. No matter how urgent the situation was and even if the superhero wasn't always showing his working projects with the team, Cisco wouldn't leave on his own on the field without telling anyone. Plus, there was the part about all the ecchymosis on his chest and how thinner he was. Yeah, sure, Cisco was shaken off by Ralph's seeming death, but other than that, he seemed okay in the last couple of weeks and, now, Ralph was back. Something was clearly not right.

But, even if Iris was right, his heart was still clenching in worries. What if it was another Cisco from another Earth? Did he have a family? Friend? Was he a different Barry's best friend? Or, what if he wasn't from another Earth?

"Please be okay," he whispered, looking up in the direction of the medical room.


	2. Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Flash gathers some information in preparation for their adventure

Half an hour after the West-Allens had been left to themselves and their despair in the library's main room, Caitlin made her entrance in cortex while wearing her now utterly blood-stained lab coat and looking mentally and physically exhausted beyond words. Upon seeing their friend enter, Iris and Barry got up from their seat on their shaky legs filled with adrenaline, scared of what they might hear.

"It's bad," the doctor dryly said without introduction and before anyone could say a single word as there was little doubt about their first question, "we've done what we could, but the next 12 hours will be critical."

For a split second, Barry closed his eyes. No matter how gruesome injuries seemed to be among Team Flash, Caitlin always managed to be a real miracle worker, so the hero had, in the last 30 minutes, managed to trick his mind into thinking everything was going to be okay. As always.

"What's wrong with him?" Questioned Iris, still in the dark about the extent of the damages.

"He got... shot," slowly announced Caitlin, hesitating on the last word as if pronouncing it was going to seal the deal on her friend's fate like some mystical spell. She had no choice but to pause for the second time in a row when the reporter gasped. Quite a vital detail Barry somehow forgot to share. Not that anyone could blame him, considering everything. Once she was sure her friends weren't going to say another word for now, despite Iris' partly opened lips, Caitlin continued.

"The bullet ruptured his spleen and caused major internal bleeding. I was able to stop most of it and to temporary repaired the biggest part of the damaged organ-"

The doctor stopped talking for a second as her shaking lips was making it incredibly harder to continue speaking. It just felt unreal, except it was happening; she wasn't talking about some random patient who fell off the stairs, she was talking about her best friend being in critical condition. Critical condition. Two fancy words doctors loved to use when they didn't want to use the word  _dying_.

Barry exhaled profoundly and clenched his fists in an attempt to keep his body from shaking too much. Why? What had they done to the universe to deserve this?

"What's the plan?'' Iris inquired. Whether it was or wasn't their Cisco or not, it didn't matter, she wasn't ready to give up hope.

"I'll see how he responds, but I might have to remove part of his spleen, if not completely," grimly announced Caitlin, "but he's too weak to be operated on again at the moment. All we can do now is hope he'll stabilize enough for it in the next twelve hours or so."

They were a team of superheroes and yet they were powerless to do anything else than hope and cross their fingers. What good was superspeed if it was no use for saving his best friend? Barry just hated this feeling that was taking over his body and making him shiver all the way down his spine. His mind was spiralling, quickly. Reading him like a book, Iris immediately understood what was going on and approached her husband to gently rub his back in a vain attempt at comforting him.

"We really don't know what happened, don't we?" Caitlin asked after a moment of silence.

Both people next to the computers shook their head in an almost synchronized fashion, both of them too exhausted to say a word. Should they share their earlier theory with the doctor now? Should they tell her now about their thought it might not be their own Cisco?

Caitlin's lips parted open, probably getting ready to add something and interrogate them more about the details of what unfolded right before she found herself zapped at the lab, but her sentence got cut up as a blue breach formed on her right and caused her to jostle in surprise. Right close to her, her companions opened up their eyes widely. Could it?

When, in the next moment, the familiar form of Cisco Ramon, their Cisco who was wearing his Eclipse of the heart's shirt, jumped out of it and gracefully landed on the grey concrete floor, Barry moved forward without hesitation to wrap his arms around his friend.

"Thank God," breathed out Barry to his best friend as he was crushing him in a tight bear hug.

Frozen up in evident surprise from Barry's unexpected reaction, Cisco didn't respond to the gesture.

"Where's the fire?" Cisco asked after a moment over Barry's shoulder who let him go and moved back just enough for Vibe to notice the blood on his friend. Gasping, the breacher's instantly jumped into high alert, "you okay, man? Are you hurt?" he asked worriedly.

While Barry's mouth and features twisted in confusion, Caitlin took the opportunity to jump on the confused breacher and to hold him as firmly as she possibly could. She was, in fact, holding him so tight that her fingernails started digging in the dark blue t-shirt. The time it took for the doctor to hug her friend was the moment Barry needed to look down and understand Cisco's reaction toward him. It was only now that Barry noticed how he looked; shirtless and in yoga grey pant, all stained with blood. Caitlin also looked pretty much the same with her bloody white lab coat over her pyjama tank. Letting go, Caitlin backed up.

"It's not our blood," dryly informed Barry to his friend who frowned a bit more in confusion

"Whose blood is it?" slowly asked Cisco, still unsure about the wellbeing of his two friends.

"It's yours. Well, not yours yours," started to ramble Barry in true Felicity fashion, "it's from another Earth's Cisco who showed up in our loft tonight."

Seeing the way Vibe opened his mouth to protest, Barry continued, "we didn't know if-"

Cisco deeply exhaled as he put two and two together and understood what happened here. Between his doppelganger showing up and the unanswered calls, no wonder his best friends looked at him like he was a ghost when he breached in the room, "oh gosh," said Cisco, "I'm so sorry…. my phone died. When I woke up with this horrible feeling something was wrong, I checked my phone, saw the messages and I came instantly."

That could possibly win the worst excuse of the month award, but that's all Cisco had. And, considering how he was still wearing his sleeping outfit like the rest of the group, it was apparent he was telling the truth about rushing straight to his friends the instant he saw the calls.

"We're just relieved you're okay," said Barry genuinely, landing his hand on the other meta-human's shoulder and gently squeezing it.

As most of the tension was leaving the heroes' shoulders, the engineer took the time to look around the room and scan it for any sign of his doppelganger, "where is h... me?"

If he weren't so exhausted from their last night's final stand against Devoe and the little sleep he managed to get before this new emergency, he probably wouldn't have asked that question. With all the blood staining his friends' clothes and the way they were all overwhelmed with relieved when he arrived at the lab, the other Cisco was obviously in the med bay, in the best-case scenario. Unless he was…

"He's in the medical lab," answered Caitlin, stating the obvious and brushing away the lock of auburn hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. "It's not good, at all."

The answer was enough for the young engineer to suddenly pale up, "is he going to make it? Is he awake? Is-"

Lying was tempting, but what would be the point? "Odds are he might not survive the day 'til sunset," said Caitlin. "I'm keeping him sedated to avoid the agony he would probably feel if he was to wake up and cross my fingers he'll stabilize soon enough for another surgery," she added.

Cisco closed his eyes; how was he supposed to react to his dying doppelganger popping up on his Earth for some reason? How were they all supposed to respond? Slightly turning on his heels, he faced his best friend;

"Do we know where he's from? What was he doing on our Earth?"

"My best guess would be he's from Earth 3," said Barry who shuddered out of the blue, probably from all the adrenaline still floating through his vein from everything that just unfolded. Now, he just needed to get a grasp on his nerves, after all, their Cisco was alive and well. But, what about Jay?

Picking up on the total absence of hesitation and the subtle nod from Barry's wife on his side, Cisco quickly frowned and inquired, "why Earth 3?"

"When he showed up at our apartment, he rambled something about Jay and needing help," explained Iris, though it was unclear if Jay was the one needing help or if that other Cisco was talking about himself considering he wasn't in the best of shape at the moment.

"Okay..." trailed Cisco, "so, we're thinking he's speaking about Jay Garrick?"

Caitlin shrugged and walked a couple of steps closer to her friends to close the tight circle they were now forming, allowing everyone to see each other without moving their head like they were watching a ping-pong game, "honestly, I don't know any other Jays."

"And something tells me he thought we would know what he was talking about and who he was referring to," added Barry, "it's possible Jay sent him to find us. If he needs help, we have to go."

It hadn't even been a full twelve hours since they destroyed Devoe's satellite and here they were, planning another possibly dangerous adventure. When were they ever going to get a rest? No matter how tired they already were, they couldn't let their friend down.

"As much as I enjoy your enthusiasm and as much as I agree we need to help Jay if he's in trouble, I'm not completely eager to get shot too," argued Cisco while moving his head toward the medbay where he now knew was laying his doppelganger. "We can't go in blind, we're going to need a plan."

"Which might be hard when our info can pretty much get resumed at one name," pointed out Caitlin. Thanks, Captain Obvious. They had nothing, no denying that.

Cisco growled in annoyance, standing still and doing nothing wasn't an option, but they couldn't jump on Earth 3 without any idea about what they were walking into either, "we have to wake me up," he concluded by turning toward Caitlin and staring at her.

A stare back was all he got for a second. Was he serious? Doppelganger or not, the unconscious and severely wounded man was her patient and the last thing he needed right now was to be disturbed.

"Oh, did you become a doctor overnight or did I miss something?" She bit sarcastically while crossing her arms over her chest and hardening her look. Combat wasn't her strong point and, in a situation where there was no choice but to kick and claw their way out of trouble, she would mostly rally to her friends' best judgment. But, when it comes to all the doctoring, she was in charge, "he's suffered from a lot of internal injuries and if, stressing the if here, he makes it 'till darkness takes over, he's going to need to be rushed into surgery again. He's in no shape to talk."

"But h-" tried to argue back Cisco, only to get interrupted again by the doctor determined to finish what she had to say.

"He's in no shape to talk, and if I do wake him up, he'll be in terrible pain. Unless I give him so much pain medication that he won't be coherent enough to have a clear discussion," Caitlin firmly keeping her ground.

Slightly turning himself to his left, the engineer stretched his arm to touch his friend's shoulder, forcing her to look straight at him, "listen, Caitlin, I know you think you're doing what's best for him, but I know him. I know myself. If he came here to deliver a message despite his condition, it has to be very important. You said it yourself that he might not make it and if he doesn't, whatever warning he had for us will be lost. And, even if he does make it, he's not going to be in shape to say anything for a while, isn't he?"

Caitlin bit her lips, knowing where her friend was heading and knowing he was right, but it doesn't mean she had to like it.

"If I were in this situation, I would want to be given a chance to transmit what I have to say," Cisco concluded before turning to Barry in search for support. The speedster wasted no time turning toward Caitlin.

"I get where you're coming from, but Cisco's right, we need to know why he came here and if he's anything like our Cisco, he would want that too."

Iris nodded in agreement next to her husband. They had to do it. Admitting defeat, Caitlin sighed, "alright, I'll decrease the sedative and his pain medication. I hope you guys are right about this."

Without adding more, the doctor turned her back on her team and headed back into the medical room, only to realize midway that she was still wearing her red stained coat. So, right before disappearing into the other room, she took the time to take it off.

It took less than half an hour before the breacher opened his eyes again, which gave enough time for Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin to all change into matching black S.T.A.R. Labs t-shirts and grey sweatpants. Better than pyjamas. As Cisco's doppelganger slowly came back to the world of the living, wincing and groaning in pain from the simple task of opening his eyes, it became quickly evident that he was under a great deal of pain. Moving his head just a tad to his left, Earth 3's Cisco managed to get a better view of the people crowded next to his bed. At the moment, Caitlin was the closest to the bed, in front of Cisco, Barry, and Iris.

"I know you're in pain, just try not to move too much," said Caitlin as an introduction to the man who frowned and squinted his eyes while scrutinizing her features and the environment surrounding the woman.

"I'm Doctor Caitlin Snow and you're at S.T.A.R. Lab. You're safe," When she said her name, the man on the bed returned his attention to her with his chest already painting in an apparent effort to contain his pain from taking control.

"Snow… you're... Fr... ro'... Frost's host," he mouthed with difficulty.

 _Haven't been_ her _for a while_ , thought Caitlin, but chose not to say anything about this. Instead, she opted for, "Jay Garrick told you?"

The other Cisco nodded at an agonizingly crawling pace which sent tremors of pain down his spine, "he sent me," he finally said with his hoarse voice, confirming the team's suspicions.

"What's happening on Earth 3?" Barry asked, joining the conversation and moving forward to stand right next to Caitlin. When Earth 3's Cisco tried to move his head to get a better look at the other person who talked to him, his attention got stolen away by the sight of his doppelganger standing just behind the two friends.

"Jay told me… I was going to meet you," said the wounded breacher to the other Cisco who also approached, feeling sorry for being the reason Caitlin took that badly injured man off the sedative and most of his pain medication. He was looking so thin, so pale and in so much pain.

"What happened to you? Were you taken?" Gently asked Cisco while reformulating the Flash's question that got ignored. Not that the young people in the room could really hold the man's short attention span against him considering the enormous amount suffering the breacher found himself in.

"He took us both. He wants to harness Jay's powers to save his wife. He won't stop," quickly rambled E3 Cisco, well, as soon as he could. It didn't sound too good.

As soon as he was done talking, E3 Cisco groaned again in pain and his back arched slightly on the bed, desperately trying to avoid the agony seemingly burning away every cell in his body. His reaction almost caused Caitlin to push everyone out of the room on the spot and give her patient all the pain medication in the world at once. It would make it less coherent, for sure, but it would also take off the edge. Except, before she could do it, a hand weakly grabbed her arm, and it wasn't the hand she thought it was.

"Wait," said her patient, puffing between his tightly closed teeth, "I need to tell you-" His sentence got cut short by an unexpected coughing fit.

"Who is he? What does he want with Jay?" Asked Barry once the man on the bed stopped coughing.

"He's named Daniel Galway a... an' h... needs Jay's… his-" the wounded Cisco had to stop himself to cough a couple of extra times and wipe his mouth before continuing, "he needs Jay's time travel ability to save his wife," he exclaimed, his voice weaker by the minute as the last bit of energy was getting drained for the effort of explaining it all.

Oh great, more time travel. Just what they needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Let me know what you think in the comments, are you happy our Cisco is alright? I can promise you that Jay himself will make his first appearance in the 4th chapter, get ready.
> 
> Having a bit of a writer's block, so I might need an extra week for chapter 3, but after you'll have your weekly update for sure. Don't be shy to leave a comment; I'll need all the motivation available.


	3. I should've saved him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Flash gathers information to get ready for the mission

Really? When were they ever going to get a decent break? Barry couldn't stop himself from rubbing his forehead in a faint attempt to ease the first symptoms of a headache that was no doubt about to come soon, somewhere down the road. It probably wasn't going to be the only one he was going to have in this adventure considering all the puzzles that usually come with time travel. Why couldn't time just be left alone?

"What happened to his wife?" Caitlin asked curiously.

"She died. Fourteen years ago, in a robbery gone wrong in their house. He wants her back and he doesn't care about the consequences of changing the timeline," explained the breacher's doppelganger, wincing in pain once every couple of words.

Forcing his brain and attention back into the conversation, since moping about their never-ending troubles wasn't going to solve a single thing, Barry spoke up before anyone else could. There was still time to act and there was still one thing to their advantage; ''How does Galway expect Jay to do his bidding? Jay would never go along with his plan of changing the past, no matter what.''

Heads nodded in approval on both sides of the speedster; he made a good point there.

"Galway is a biologist who's working on some serum that he hopes will allow him to control the Flash," grimly said E3 Cisco, almost managing to crush everyone's hope with his low voice, "I barely managed to escape, thanks to Jay's help. They caught him back and shot me before we could leave our Earth. He told me to find this Earth's Flash if I made it out and he didn't."

The wounded breached lowered his head in guilt, "should've saved him, shouldn't have involved all of you. Should've gone back for him."

"I'm sure you did what you could. Had you turned around to go back for him, we would still be clueless about what's going on. You did the right thing and now, we're going to save Jay," said Iris who decided to join the conversation she had been quietly listening behind the three friends.

The severely wounded Meta barely heard Iris' pep talk as his face tensed up badly and his eyes closed themselves tightly when he swallowed down a powerful wave of nausea.

"Can I have a minute alone with myself?" Earth Three's Cisco asked slowly, his eyes still closed, "alone.'"

Cisco shrugged at his friends; why not? Nothing could happen, "just give us a moment, guys."

Caitlin turned to the Flash and his wife to see if they had any objection. When neither of them added a thing, the doctor yielded, "just a couple of minutes. After, you," she added, directly addressing her patient, "you need to rest. A lot."

Once that was cleared up, Caitlin walked out of the room alongside the West-Allen, but not without turning her head around one last time to look at the Ramons. Meeting your double was never easy, that's for sure. Especially when that double just happened to be possibly dying from being a hero.

The last thing Caitlin saw before making her way out was her Cisco dragging a chair as close as possible to the bed, to get as comfortable as he could to listen to every single word his Earth was so eager to share, even in his condition. Hopefully, it was important enough that it was worth endangering E3 Cisco's life a bit more by pushing himself so hard instead of resting.

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Caitlin curiously questioned as she leant against the back of the main desk in the cortex while facing Barry. For a moment, it didn't look like the young hero even heard her talk as he was walking back and forth between the computers and the entry to the medbay.

"Humm? What?" Inquired Barry, turning on his heels and facing the woman again as he had just finished reaching for the other room's door once again. While the speedster' wife stayed silent, sitting behind the computer, Iris was still distractedly listening. At the moment, most of her concentration was focused on the computer screen in front of her.

Caitlin frowned at her friend's slow and confused reaction, "you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I am," quickly, a tad too fast, answered Barry while passing his hand in his messed-up hair and containing another yawn. He just was so tired, and yet so stressed out at the same time.

Considering how Iris looked up from her researches to glare at him for a second, it was clear she wasn't buying his act. But, she still chose not to say anything, for now. The way Caitlin's expression mirrored Iris's had Barry sighing and correcting his sentence.

"I'm just worried. I'm worried about all of this; about Jay, about Earth 3, about this other Cisco possibly dying in our medbay…"

"We'll figure this out, and we'll save Jay, don't worry," tried to assure Caitlin with a half-smile while being completely aware that it only was an empty promise, one she had no way to backup. On the same breath, she also purposely avoided talking about the other Cisco considering how his chances of survival weren't very high right now.

"Hope so…" weakly stated the speedster, not convinced.

"Think I found something. I'm just not sure how much it's going to help us," said Iris, causing the conversation to stop and prompting her team to join her hurriedly, "there's a Daniel Galway on our Earth and he's also a scientist."

Gathering behind the computers, Caitlin and Barry leaned over the woman's shoulders to take a better look at the photo Iris managed to track down from the newspaper's archives, dating from fifteen years ago.

"He was an assistant in his wife's, Polly Galway, top research facility before she got murdered in their home. That's just like this other Cisco said it happened on his Earth."

"At least now we know what he looks like. That's one good thing about having a doppelganger," said Barry, straightening up and crossing his arms on his chest, "you have anything else that could help?"

Iris shrugged and changed the tabs on her browser, "as far as I can tell, he continued his scientific career and ended up getting remarried to a woman named Lisa. Can't find any prior in his record, he looks clean on this earth. There's no mad scientist Galway alert here as far as I can tell."

"Hopefully, Cisco is gathering more information in there that will be useful," added Barry while pointing with his head toward the door.

"Do you guys think the other Cisco was telling the truth in there?" Iris asked, turning her chair around to discuss the situation with the young scientists, "I mean, about what Daniel is planning. Do you think he can really create a serum that will force Jay to change the timeline?"

"Considering his condition, I don't see why he would lie," answered Caitlin.

That was, of course, unless he was already brainwashed. Except, if he were, it would only mean the serum was already existing and that was another reason to mount a rescue mission as fast as possible. Unsure, the doctor looked at Barry for approval.

"I don't know why he would either, but whether we believe him completely or not, if there's the slightest chance that Galway has Jay, we have to help him. Plus, if there's any chance Galway could find a way to harness his powers, harness any speedsters' or Meta's powers, we can't let it happen."

Everyone's attention got drawn away from the computers at the sound of rushing footsteps and a door opening in a hurry to reveal a panicked looking Cisco whose' eyes darted all around until they found the doctor.

"He's struggling to breathe! Help!" He shouted, way louder than necessary.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"Hey," softly said Barry as he entered the room with an extra coffee in his hand that he gently put down on the medical bay's desk next to his doctor friend who was blankly staring at her computer's screen. She had been staring for so long that her electronic device had activated its screensaver of moving circles as it waited in vain for another instruction.

Taking the closest chair and dragging it forward to take a seat right next to Caitlin, Barry carefully avoided looking directly at the patient behind him that was covered by a thick black blanket from head to toe, literally.

"It's not your fault, you tried your best," he said in a faint attempt to cheer her up.

"Should've tried harder, should've saved him," her eyes were still staring straight ahead at the hypnotizing forms moving on the screen in front of her eyes. But even in her shaken state, she still gratefully accepted the coffee that had been offered to her once she was done unconsciously pushing her hairs behind her ears to ensure they wouldn't fall into the liquid.

"Come on, Cait. You of all people know how bad his condition was. He could've breached himself into a hospital, but instead chose to come here to warn us about the danger his Earth and Jay were facing."

"But... still," Caitlin tried to say, still refusing to make eye contact despite the gentle hand that landed on her arm, "I should've saved him. I should've tried harder," she added, without even realizing she was quoting the now deceased breacher.

"I know where you're coming from, believe me. I've been there when I was on Earth 2. I've seen their Joe die before my eyes and even if I knew it's wasn't the same person, it was still real."

As he was speaking, the speedster could feel his throat closing a tad at the memory, but he swallowed the lump and bit his lip to keep any emotion from showing as he needed to be strong for his friend, "I know it's disturbing to see the doppelganger of someone you care about die in front of you."

"Yeah…" quietly answered Caitlin before finally turning her head around to look at her friend, which allowed him to see the dry tears' track on her pale skin, "do you think he was close to Dante on his Earth?"

That was one thought that didn't make it into Barry's head 'till this moment and now that it had, Barry could feel his chest clenching. What if? Taking a slow, deep, breath, Barry took back control of his emotions, once again; ''we can't think about that right now. What's important is going to help Jay.'' he reiterated. They needed to be focused, "I already called Joe, he's on his way and should be there soon and Ralph already arrived. Cisco's with him now."

Wiping away the tears that had started to accumulate under her puffy eyes, Caitlin sniffed loudly and forced her mind to focus on their present problem, "Cisco told you what they discussed?"

Barry just shook his head before answering, "not really. He just told me that he has a pretty good idea where Galway's hideout is.''

"They discussed the location for a full five minutes?" That sounded suspicious and had Caitlin frowning.

Barry shrugged, "I don't know. I guess it's possible they had something personal to discuss. I mean, they're the same person in a way and I trust Cisco to tell us if he heard anything that might be important to the mission."

Yeah, there was no reason to believe anything else. Their friend wouldn't withhold any crucial element needed in the mission. For all they know, Earth 3 Cisco might've asked to their breacher to deliver some kind of personal message to his family considering how he already knew he wasn't coming back.

"Alright, let's get ready for this," said Caitlin, determined, as she got up from her seat and headed toward the cortex with the hero. Just as Barry told her earlier, Cisco and Ralph were already there, discussing and waiting.

"So, what's the plan rookie?" Inquired Ralph with his natural enthusiasm, "when do we leave?"

The man sure was eager to get back into action considering he just got his life back less than 12 hours ago. But, hey, that was Dibny for you.

Despite the new set of grim circumstances they found themselves in, Barry couldn't help but smile, "no, not we, Ralph. I'm happy to hear that you're feeling good enough to get back into the game and come with us, but you have to stay here."

Putting his hands on his hips, Ralph frowned, half insulted, "really? Haven't you heard my little speech from last time, right after you went full on mighty Thor on me? I'm not letting you go into danger without me. You're going to need backup. Plus, I've never been on another earth and I can't miss my chance," finished the hero with a big, childish, smile on his face. No matter how much he's changed in the last six months, Ralph would always be Ralph.

To be fair, Barry had to admit that it wasn't like Cisco and himself didn't get overly excited for a second the first time they went to Earth 2, even if they went there on the dangerous mission of freeing Jesse from Zoom's evil grasp.

"You just freed yourself from Devoe, you need some time to readjust, an-"

"I am readjusted!" Loudly protested the stretchy superhero, "helping you guys is what makes my life normal now, plus…"

"And-" repeated Barry, interrupting his friend, "while I'm gone with Cisco, I'm going to need someone to look after my city."

Approaching, Barry laid a gentle hand on his very tall friend's shoulder and smiled at him, "my mind would be a lot more at peace and I would be way more focused if I was sure I have someone I can trust to take care of everything here."

Sighing, Ralph lowered his head but nodded nonetheless, "fine..." he yielded reluctantly.

Both heroes exchanged understanding looks and Barry let go of his friend's shoulder just as quickly closing sounds from the hallway announced the arrival of someone. Indeed, moments later, as everyone was turned toward the exit of the cortex, Joe made his entrance.

"Joe I'm so sorry to take you away from your daughter," apologized Barry while approaching his surrogate father and putting on his beaten-up puppy eyes only he knew how to make.

"Don't worry about it," instinctively said Joe while taking off his familiar black toque to pass his hands in his short hair in a gesture that was clearly contradicting with his cool and none-disturbed words.

His demeanour wasn't lost on Barry, but he chose not to comment on it, "how's Cecile? And the baby?" He asked instead, knowing there was no point in arguing about Joe's contractions between his words and gestures.

"They're... pretty good actually. The baby is in perfect health," he proudly said with a bright and relieved smile in his face. A contagious one at that, "I dropped them home before coming here."

"That's great, it really is," Barry smiled back. In the superhero business, every bit of good news was always more than welcome.

Moving out of the way, Flash allowed the detective to truly enter the room and join the group placed in a circle right in front of the suit.

"So, what do we have? You said something about Jay and time travel, is that right? And… Cisco's doppelganger from… Earth 3?"

Straight down to business it was then.

"Yeah, someone wants to brainwash Jay, using some sort of..." Barry turned slightly toward Caitlin who shrugged, just as unsure as he was, "some sort of serum, I guess if I correctly quote the information the other Cisco gave us."

"So, I'm guessing you're going then?" Joe assumed correctly. Why wouldn't they go?

"Yeah, Cisco and I will leave soon. We're going to find Daniel Galway, stop his plan and free Jay before Galway gets the chance to control him or start messing with the timeline. Meanwhile, Ralph will stay behind with you and Caitlin to look after the city."

"Uh, excuse me. I'm going too," protested Caitlin, "you are not leaving me behind."

Of all the people who opened their mouth, Ralph was the fastest to speak up, "correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Frost still unavailable from what I understand? What are you going to do if you encounter resistance?"

Barry almost jumped into the argument but quickly stopped himself, remembering the tirade Cisco gave him not even one day before for refusing his friend the chance to make up their own choice about going on the field or not. No, he wasn't going to jump into that fight again; the speedster was out of cards to play and he knew it.

"I can, and I did, help against Devoe without Killer Frost That's why-" she said, turning toward Cisco, "-you made me that suit yesterday and Cold's portable gun. I can handle myself out there. And don't forget that you might need me if Jay is hurt. We all owe him."

Turning around in search of some support, the Elongated man found none.

"She made Frost proud," backed up Cisco. Saying anything else would be a lie considering everything she's done since losing her second, icy, half, especially when she accompanied Cisco and Barry to save the hostage. "If she really wants to come with us, I'm for it."

Barry nodded in agreement, "all right, let's do this. Together."

"When do we leave?" Determinedly asked Cisco.

"In two hours," decided Barry, "we're going to Earth 3 and not coming back without Jay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hand if you wanna hurt me for killing Cisco...*walk away whistling*
> 
> What do you think? Will they manage to save Jay before it's too late? I wasn't supposed to post tonight, but I couldn't wait. I promise Jay himself will show up in next week's chapter!


	4. Earth 3

"Are you ready?" Asked Barry as he walked into the medical bay a full two hours later, not a second sooner or later, precise as a clock. No more time to waste.

Getting into the room, he found Caitlin sitting behind her desk and staring at the computer, something that was quickly becoming some sort of a habit today. Hopefully, it wasn't going to happen again for a while after this.

The only significant difference this time, other than the fact the dead body behind them had been transported to their morgue, was that the hero came in ready to go; fully dressed in his Flash suit and with his cowl down. The doctor was just as set to go as her friend, as her black leather pants were on just like her black vest with a black belt around the waist. Lying next to her were her orange goggles and her gauntlets. The suit the doctor wore to free the hostages the day before sure hadn't been put together for that one mission only.

"I'm almost ready, just give me a couple of extra minutes," she requested as she was changing the tab and clicking a few times on her screen to enhance the video of white cells replicating and seemingly charging through the sample at some weird, long shaped, organisms which were attacking countless other type of cells present in the video.

"I've just finishing analysing our "visitor's" blood," she said, slowing down her speech's speed and hesitating in her sentence before the word 'visitor' came out. It sounded so impersonal and so detached, but what other word was she was supposed to say? It was the only way she could talk about this situation without being reminded of the identity of the patient who just passed away in the bed behind her, the now empty bed.

"What's this?" Curiously asked Barry while pointing at the long shaped unidentified element. He was a scientist, a CSI, who was almost just as familiar as the doctor with the red and white cells in a sample, but there was something weird about that other element in the blood.

"I'm not sure, I've never seen it before," she said before getting up and moving a couple of inches to the left to get another look directly in her microscope, "for all I know, this might not even exist on our Earth," she added with her right eye still tightly pressed against the equipment.

"It looks like some sort of virus," observed Barry as he returned his attention to the computer. That observation seemed pretty obvious considering how many white cells there were and how they were replicating to fight off the enemy.

"Yeah," confirmed Caitlin before straightening herself up and turning her head toward Barry while scratching her forehead, "I wish I knew what this... thing was doing to him. Plus, from the other samples I took from his blood, I found traces of some substances I can't seem to identify right now. I'm guessing these substances got introduced into his bloodstream some time ago, like many hours ago if not more, which isn't helping me at all identifying what it is and what effect they were having on him."

"Are we thinking it could be the serum? The one that's supposed to be brainwashing people," Barry inquired, feeling like he was jumping to the same conclusion that his friend was. If it was, how much would they be able to rely on the information given by the possibly compromised breacher?

But, once again, Caitlin could only shake her head in doubt, "I don't know. It's a possibility for sure. It's not very productive to create a serum your body will detect as a virus and destroy, but I can't be sure of what it was. Maybe I could know more with more analyses, but it would take time and time is something we don't have a lot of right now," she said.

Barry sighed and took a quick second to look behind his shoulder to ensure nobody was about to enter and hear him talk before adding anything more, "I'll be honest with you, I have a terrible feeling about all of this."

"Yeah, me too," gravely admitted Caitlin, especially now that she had time to scratch the surface on what might've happened to the now dead breacher, "I would feel a lot better if knew Killer Frost was still ready to come out and help us. Despite what I said to Ralph and what I did on the field to save the person Devoe took hostages, I would be lying to say I'm not scared."

"Are you sure you want to come?" Softly asked the hero, "you don't have anything to prove to anyone, especially not to us or to Ralph who wasn't there to see you yesterday."

The young woman's lips twitched and her teeth scraped her bottom lips for an instant as she really took her options under considerations before answering firmly, "no, I want to come. I want to help."

Slightly frowning, Barry considered for a second if she was telling the truth before nodding in an almost imperceptible way, accepting her decision.

"All right, time to go. Cisco's waiting for us in the cortex," the CSI told her.

"Just give me one minute, I'll join you," requested the doctor who turned her back on him to finish packing the last few things she might need on this trip. Just before the speedster had disappeared out of the door, she swiftly turned on herself, "and, Barry?" She said, causing him to make the same motion to face his friend again.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she added as a small smile crept onto her lips.

Just like she promised, a few minutes later the young brunette came out of the room with a backpack on her back to join her team waiting for her in their battle suit and standing under the anxious glances of those about to be left behind, Joe and Ralph.

"You three better come back safe and sound," Joe told them seriously definite worry hiding underneath his voice as he came forward to hug every hero one by one, starting by Caitlin and finishing by his foster son, an action that got copied by the stretched hero who also made his goodbye to the team. No, not goodbye, more like a see you later.

"I'll keep them safe, Joe," said Barry as he released his embrace on the older man. Letting his son go on a mission like this wasn't getting easier on the detective, not at all. Especially knowing how the hero's biggest concern always seemed to be more focused on his friends and mission than about to come back in one piece.

"You guys bring me a souvenir!" Called out Ralph in an attempt to lighten up the mood once the hugs and good luck had been exchanged. It made Barry chuckle for sure.

"We'll try our best, just keep my city safe."

"Don't worry about it, Rookie, just... be careful," requested Ralph, back in a serious mood before taking a step back to give Cisco all the needed space to create a powerful and beautiful looking blue portal. Time to go on a mission!

The three heroes gracefully landed on the other side of the portal and all breathed in at the same time the air of this new Earth, a whole new world for both Caitlin and Cisco. In a way, it also kind of was a new world for Barry too to as he only came in this universe for a moment to recruit Jay's help against Savitar, the speedster didn't stay to do some sightseeing. Thanks to the cloudy and partly raining atmosphere of this last hour or so before dawn, the darkness surrounding the team was offering a perfect cover for the hero. All of them had appeared in an alley not too far from Galway dead wife's small laboratory. Right outside the hallway, taxi and cars were passing by every few moments and a group of young people walked by wearing a raincoat and rushing to go to wherever they were heading.

"I thought you said that part of town was mostly abandoned," Caitlin quietly commented, relying heavily on the info given by the dead breacher.

"Don't look at me, I'm just the messenger," protested Cisco, "come on, the lab should be that way," said Vibe while directing in the right direction, or the one that should be accurate, "at least, things don't look too apocalyptic right now, we still have time to act."

Barry nodded before speeding up and taking his two friends along for the ride. The group moved at super speed all the way 'til the end of the road where they managed to get away from the restaurants and other night entertainment part of the district. Just like they got informed, once they were further down the road and on the other side of the bridge, they became surrounded by countless private industries and by big and non-cultivated fields. Continuing their route and passing the trees line, the team finally made a stop in a tiny wooded area where they took cover behind a bush. They were hiding just a couple of hundred feet away from tall fences keeping unwanted visitors from entering the property of the small looking white, two stories tall, laboratory, the one that should be abandoned according to this Earth's Cisco.

"There are people there," pointed Cisco at a couple of people in white coats talking just outside the facility.

"And a couple of guards watching the gates," added Caitlin as a big trunk was waiting near the fenced door while an armed guard was approaching the driver to confirm the visitor's identity.

The laboratory wasn't only guarded, but the Galway Laboratories' sign at the top of it looked pretty shiny and clean under the surveillance light, not something you usually see on unoperated site.

Obviously worried, Barry tensed up and inhaled deeply, "I don't like that. First, the district just before the bridge wasn't mostly abandoned and now this lab isn't either. It looks pretty active to me. I have an awful feeling about this."

Even their immediate surroundings weren't what it was supposed to be; this Earth's Cisco informed his doppelganger about a small forest next to the laboratory that gave him some cover while making a run for it. The visitor said he had the thick vegetation to thank for being able to avoid being shot dead on the spot. This small wooded area wasn't near a big as described. Their information was apparently wrong. Perhaps the other Cisco was indeed under the influence of the drugs in his system and sold them out.

"What do we do?" Inquired Cisco, whispering to his masked friend, "what's the plan?"

Barry cringed as he looked at both his friends; he wasn't expecting that much resistance. If he had, he might've fought a bit harder against bringing Caitlin along for the ride. Getting her to save a couple of hostages wasn't the same as fighting armed guards for whom it was impossible to tell if they were only formal employees with no idea about their boss's experiments or if they were involved deep in the conspiracy.

"Let me take a look inside and find Jay," said the speedster, already slowly getting back on his feet and off his crouched position.

"Oh no you don't, not alone," protested Cisco, raising his voice just a tad and grabbing his best friend's arm, "we didn't come all this way just to be your bystanders."

Not exactly the place and time to fight, especially not when dawn was about to arrive and make it harder to move around undetected.

"Fine," Barry reluctantly surrendered, "I'll phase us all in, but stay close to me, alright?"

When they all nodded, the speedster took off, carrying both his friends, and sped into the building. In a matter of a second or less, Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin suddenly all found themselves in the basement and on the other side of the reinforced white door where the prisoner should be. That was if that one information was correct. Going on the other side of the door led straight into an eerie environment of greyish cement walls and dusty floor, making the basement well isolated from all the noises from the upper levels. Or, probably, it's more likely that it was isolating the rest of the building from whatever was happening in the basement.

Placed against the hallway's wall, on the left, were three closed metallic cages that had been put side by side. Each one was being held a couple of inches above the ground thanks to strong support at all four corners and the cage themselves were just a bit over six feet tall. They were also large enough for two average size people to stand side by side, but just barely. These were probably made to hold some relatively big animal. Each side and the back of these cages were made out of five feet tall thick metallic plaque. The remaining height between these plaques and the ceiling of the small prison consisted of a grilling. It had enough space to take a peek at the adjacent cage if you were tall enough. The front part of these cages was made entirely of sturdy grilling, except for the bottom part that was completed with a small opening to allow the person in charge to feed the prisoner or caged animal.

These cages were taking just over half the width of the hallway that was continuing a bit more to lead to three doors at the end of it; one straight ahead and the two others on each side. Everything was empty and silent for now. Time to find Jay and get the hell out of there before someone could spot the intruders and ring the alarm.

Sudden rattling in the cages jostled the whole hero's team.

"There better not be tigers in there," quietly whispered Cisco, gaining a strange side look from his friend.

 _Really?_  Clearly said the speedster's face who chose not to say a thing.

Walking closer and in almost complete silence thanks to the cement floor that was keeping their footsteps from making noise, they walked in front of the cages, but not without taking another quick glance to make sure they were still alone. And, they were, for now.

"Jay?" Breathed out Barry who spotted first the figure slumped against the back of the last prison on the right. The prisoner's chin was down on his chest and it was making it impossible to tell if he was awake or not, especially not in the dim light.

Quickening the pace, Barry covered in a couple of steps the remaining distance separating him from his speedster's friend, "Jay! Jay, can you hear me?' he whispered quickly.

The older man was still wearing his damaged speedster suit, torn at multiple places and incredibly dirty, but there was no wide hole possibility indicating a grave injury, so that was good. The missing helmet was allowing the rescue team to see their friend's sweaty hair stuck to his just as dirty head. At the voice calling his name and the approaching footsteps, Jay Garrick opened his eyes. In the dim light, it wasn't easy to see all the details, but his features looked beyond exhausted behind the countless cuts and bruises.

"Flash?'' He slowly asked, flashes of recognition appearing in his eyes after a second of hesitation.

"Yeah, it's us, Jay," confirmed Barry who reached out for the door's lock and... didn't do a thing.

"You're okay?" Asked Caitlin, coming up next to him.

"Yeah, something about these cages is messing with my powers. I can't destroy the lock by vibrating," answered Barry, letting go of the lock, "we need to find the source of it."

''Hold on,'' said Caitlin, ''back off and stay away from it,'' she requested before raising her right arm and pointing her weapon wearing gauntlet toward the lock. In the next instant, she had it completely frozen up under her friends' curious look.

''Cisco-'' she requested, only needing to share one look to her breacher friend to get him to understand what she wanted out of him.

Raising his gauntlets, Vibe summoned the vibrational energy of this universe to shake off the metal of the cage's lock. All it took was a second or two for a loud crack to make itself heard. Got it. Victorious smiles got shared between the two friends; there was nothing like good field teamwork.

"Come on, let's go before anyone sees us," said Barry before quickly opening the cage.

As Jay was getting up, with his hair grazing the ceiling of his prison, his eyes flashed ominously. The instant the Earth 3 Flash's feet touched the ground, he took off at full speed, charging straight at his Earth 1 counterpart.

Before any of Team Flash could understand what was happening, their newly freed friend they just released from his metal cage suddenly went charging at them with full force. Just like that. Before the doctor and the engineer were done blinking, their best friend got tackled with all the power in the world and was sent flying against the opposite cement wall. The instant Barry hit the cement, the sickening cracking sound of an unmistakably bone breaking resonated in the room.

"BARRY!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's be honest, who really expected their plan to work all nicely? Did you expect Jay to attack them straight away like that? Leave a comment, they're always *deeply* appreciated


	5. Trapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoah! So many comments in the last chapter, thank you all, very very much! Hope you'll keep on loving where the story is going and let me know ;) Enjoy!

"BARRY!" Cisco and Caitlin shouted in unison, their eyes opened wide as their friend's body slumped to the floor where he landed on his side, completely unmoving and with his eyes closed.

Horror and shivered filled his two best friend's mind and body at the horrifying sound. No no no no… Did the man just crush his skull? Broke his neck? Was he just unconscious or was it the inconceivable and permanent Death word? The man responsible for the attack against the red hero was standing still over his utterly unmoving victim as Jay was seemingly analysing the situation.

"Jay! What are you doing?" Shouted the doctor while raising her portable cold gun, ready to fire.

That was not how this rescue mission was supposed to unfold.

"Stop!" Shouted Cisco with both of his gauntlets already pointing at the man. His eyes were squinting and his whole body was tensed in deep concentration, but no vibrational attack came out.

The first offensive toward the aggressive speedster came in the form of the portable cold gun firing straight at Jay who had no problem dodging it before circling his victim like a cat playing with his prey before it was dinner time. A storm of yellow lightning was surrounding his victims, looking like it was everywhere at the same time and sending shivers down the spine of the two friends. Despite the slim to none chance of hitting their target, both scientists still kept their hands up and pointed in front of them.

With nothing to lose, Caitlin fired the cold gun again, and again, but the speedster easily dodged all the attacks while Cisco kept on keeping his ground and position, but without attacking. Something wasn't right.

"Cisco! What ar-" started shouting the doctor to his friend only to get interrupted by a swift movement on her left that charged at them, connected with the breacher and sent him flying, "CISCO!"

Just like his best friend moments before, the breacher's body connected with the cement wall. The impact wasn't as harsh as Barry's, but it was enough to make Cisco see stars while his body fell to the ground. Groaning in pain, all the hero could do was to desperately blink in an attempt to try and clear his vision from the black spot he was seeing. Making a full stop, finally, Jay stood right in front of the doctor with his Speedforce sparkling all over his body as his eyes were coldly staring at her. No emotion was showing as Jay sharply grabbed Caitlin's hands and violently torn off her cold gun wearing gauntlet, efficiently breaking the weapon in the process. His actions left the woman, the last standing member of her team, defenceless.

A loud and resonating creaking behind the group made Caitlin turn her head slightly just in time to witness the reinforced door opening and allowing a team of five heavily armed guards to rush in. Right behind them was a tall man in his mid-40s, with short dark brown hair, and who was wearing a blue suit and tie. Everything about him screamed authority as he confidently walked inside, barely wasting any second to look at the defeated heroes.

Daniel Galway. That was him, no doubt about that. Even if Caitlin hadn't seen the picture, she would still make that guess.

"Good job. Thank you for taking care of these intruders," said Galway to the speedster who nodded and, following a quick sign of his boss, walked a step away from the terrified doctor who was struggling to keep hidden the spasms in her muscles. Not that hiding her fear would change anything since everybody probably already knew how frightened she was.

"Take their weapons and put them in a cage," directed Galway to his armed men while pointing in the direction of Caitlin and Cisco who was struggling to get on all fours and, hopefully, get back on his feet.

Cisco's struggles didn't last too long as two strong black wearing men forcefully forced him on his feet while another one yanked off his goggles and gauntlets before securing a brightly flashing black wristband around his right wrist. Two extra men gave the same gift to Caitlin and took her bag away.

"You can use the same one, we might need the last cage," added Galway who had his glance locked on the fallen red hero.

As the guards were efficiently operating, Jay made his way to the too-still youngster speedster who had yet to move a single muscle since being thrown against the wall. Laying on his side, Barry was entirely out of the count, unconscious, and that was in the best-case scenario. With one swift kick in Barry's stomach, Garrick turned him his back and, once that was one, he kicked the younger hero's ribs. When Jay didn't obtain any reaction from the unresponsive hero, he knelt on the ground and reached out for the Flash's throat with the clear intention to check if he was still alive. Observing the scene as much as she could while weakly attempting to break free from the guards, Caitlin felt her heart tighten in worry, could Barry be….?

"Don't bother," indicated Galway, seeing his older speedster's motion and making him stop, "we can make good use out of him either him. Just take him to the main lab and wait for me," he instructed.

Nodding his understanding, Jay took a grab on the other's man and took off running. Both speedsters disappeared in the blink of an eye before the guards were even done throwing Barry's two best friends in the same cage, the last one on the left.

"Good job everyone," said Galway before walking solemnly toward the cage with a crooked smile on his lips.

"Do you really think I would keep my precious Metahuman here if I didn't have a way to detect newcomers?" He mocked to his new prisoners on the ground of their prison.

Standing up in defiance and protectively placing herself between their captor and her friend still recuperating on the ground, Caitlin aggressively addressed Galway, "what did you do to Jay Garrick?"

Unimpressed, Galway just shrugged, "it doesn't concern you. Now rest, I might need you later," he concluded before he started walking toward the door at the end of the hallway, the same one Jay took Barry to do... who knows what.

Sighing, Caitlin knelt back on the floor of the cage just right next to Cisco's shoulder and gently pressed her hand behind his back to assist the hero who was slowly sitting up.

"Are you okay?" She worriedly asked.

"Yup, think so," groaned back Cisco in answer while pressing his left hand behind his head, wincing in pain.

Gently prying her friend's hand away, Caitlin took a look at the wound. Well, she examined it as much as she could anyway in this dim light and pressed her hand against the forming lump.

"Are you nauseous? Seeing double? Black spots?" She asked, in full doctor mode, a detached mode that was helping her mind stay focused on the present situation without drifting into full-on panic.

Shaking his head negatively probably wasn't the best idea Cisco had ever had as the intended answer he wanted to express quickly turned to a yeah thanks to the dizziness coming with moving his head too fast, "maybe a little," admitted Cisco while gulping down the nauseous.

"You probably have a small concussion. Try not to move around too much," instructed Caitlin before completely sitting down right next to him in the very confined space. It was so confined that she could feel both the exterior wall pressing against her side and her friend pressing against her opposite shoulder.

The exaggerated deep breath that followed was a clear indication of her discouragement and a signal her friend instantly understood.

"We're going to find a way out," said Cisco, trying his best to reassure her, "we're going to get out of this cage, take back our speedsters and go back home."

"Do you think he's still alive?" Asked the doctor in the next instant while still had all her attention directed forward at their cage's door instead of looking at her friend. There was no need for a specification for Cisco to get who she was talking about.

"He has to be," firmly answered Cisco without hesitation, there was no other possibility, "Galway wouldn't have taken him if he wasn't."

"He said Barry would be useful either way…" grimly reminded Caitlin. Why did she even ask that question to Cisco in the first place? What was she expecting as an answer? The engineer was just as clueless and scared as she was about their friend's fate. And their own, to be entirely honest.

She gulped at the idea of some mad scientist dissecting his friend like some lab rat inside a dark and humid room worthy of the goriest horror movie. Caitlin put her feet plant on the ground and drew her knees as close as possible to her chest so she could wrap her arms around her legs and retract on herself as much as possible, both physically and mentally. Before she had the opportunity to shut herself down completely, Cisco passed his left arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, I know you're terrified, so am I, but we can't lose hope. We'll figure something out like we always do," he gently whispered.

Unconvinced, the doctor stayed silent and kept on looking ahead at the prison door as Vibe was playing with the flashing wristband that had been put on his wrist. No matter how much he was struggling, he still found himself unable to get it off and as long as it was on, he couldn't manage to use his powers. Great. Except, it didn't stop the breacher from trying as it was keeping his mind busy enough to not overthink about Barry's fate.

The breacher didn't remember when or how, but he eventually went to sleep, only to be woken up a little while later by Caitlin who was checking on his head injury. The second time the hero felt hands shaking his shoulders, bringing him out of the darkness and back to the cruel world, he groaned in protest. Why were these hands so insistent? After all, he earned that sleep and deserved it after just defeating Devoe.

"'m fine, C'tlin-'' he mumbled while trying to turn on his side so he could put his back between his sweet rest and his relentless friend, only to get remembered about how tight their prison was. Because, yup, he totally wasn't in his bed.

"Cisco, wake up," urgently insisted Caitlin, shaking him harder.

"Five m-" he mumbled again.

''It's Barry,'' she said. That one word, one name, caused the hero's eyes to snap open and prompted his attention back to the harsh reality.

"Barry? Where?" He asked while sitting up fast enough to cause his nauseous to come back.

Pushing the unpleasant sensation away, he pushed his hands on the ground to force his body into a seated position just as an armed security guard approached the cages forcibly dragging the unmoving form of Barry Allen between them. The wrists of the speedsters were secured in front of him with special flashing handcuff looking just like the wristbands his friends had. Also, the suit was still on, but the cowl was down and hanging from behind Barry's head.

These simple details comforted Caitlin.

 _You don't tie up and lock up a corpse,_  she thought to herself.

The groan of pain that escaped the young CSI's lips as he got hardly shoved into his own confined cage was the most beautiful sound his friends had never heard as it confirmed that he was, indeed, alive. Maybe not alive and well, but alive was a great start.

"Barry?" Questioned Caitlin.

Getting up on her toes, she moved around Cisco to get as close as possible to the side of her prison to get a view over the thick wall and between the bars in hope to see the speedster who was on the ground on the other side.

"Can you hear us? Are you okay?" Asked Cisco, a question that instantly earned him a side glance from his friend.

Really? Was he okay? Of course, Barry wasn't okay; they all heard a bone snapping earlier, but, thankfully it wasn't anything lethal. And, hopefully, it wasn't another case of broken back and paralysis considering their present circumstances.

After a few anxious seconds where silence was only interrupted by groans and short gasps of pain, the two friends started wondering if Barry was even conscious. As hope was beginning to drift away, a familiar voice finally announced his presence, "yeah, here... arrg," suddenly said Barry in obvious discomfort.

"Where are you injured?" Asked Caitlin who wasn't able to completely see his friend on the other cage as he still was on the ground, shifting on the ground in pain.

The only answer she got was an unintended shout of pain as Barry rolled on his side before managing to get back on his knees. Then, with one extra effort, accompanied by more grunts of pain, Barry go back on his feet, wincing and panting, and entered the field of vision of both Caitlin and Cisco. The deep exhale that escaped Caitlin's lips and the chuckle that followed from the engineer were clear indications of their relief. So, no broken back nor broken neck, apparently, as Barry was now on his feet. Since he was up, things couldn't be that bad, right?

Except, the speedster wasn't wholly unharmed, apparently, as his right arm was still tightly pressed against his side and chest protectively. Oh, that and the way the speedster suddenly stumbled a few steps before he finally regained his balance and pressed his left hand against the side of his head.

"Hey, easy there-" said Cisco, clenching his fists in frustration from being unable to rush to his friend's side to support him.

"Maybe you shouldn't get up so fast," advised Caitlin to the stubborn speedster who wasn't going to listen anyway.

"I'm okay…" Barry started to answer. Seeing the glances he received as he started talking, it became evident pretty fast that nobody was buying it, so he continued, "pretty sure I have a broken shoulder and I'm a bit dizzy, but it could be worse."

When Caitlin's eyes that were staring at the hand that Barry had on his head went lower on her friend's face and neck, she frowned. Right at the base of his neck, there was a pretty big red circle.

"What have they done to you?"

Following the direction of Caitlin's glance and quickly understanding the meaning behind the question, Barry put his hand on the sensitive and irritated skin.

"I've been out for most of it," he admitted, "but I do remember them injecting me with something, " he admitted, not missing the worried looks that go exchanged at his expected answer. "I think they might've taken some too; I'm not sure."

"Injected you with the same serum they used on Jay? Or, on the other me?" Cisco asked carefully.

"Probably, but before you ask, no I don't have any desire to attack you," said the hero, easily guessing the upcoming question. Probably better question, why would Galway need Barry considering they already had a speedster under their full control?

"It might take a moment to act as it did with Jay," theorized Caitlin, "we need to get out of here before it does affect you."

The part was obvious, they needed a plan and they needed on fast. And, let's not forget about freeing the senior speedster before Jay could change the timeline and find a way to heal him... What did Snart always says about a plan? Get ready to see it derail and throw it away? Yup, it couldn't be more accurate this time. Actually, it seems like every single one of their plans ended up being thrown at the window, every single time.

"You're not going anywhere," suddenly said a familiar voice growling in the dark and stepping out of the shadow and in front of the cages. Jay.

Barry walked as close as possible to the door and grabbed the bars, "what are you doing? I know you're still in there, Jay, you gotta help us."

Smiling ominously, Jay answered slowly, "I am helping you, I'm helping you realize where your place really is."

"Why aren't you back in a cage too?" Asked Barry. Was the other speedster only there earlier to set a trap? Did Galway know they were coming? Had the other Cisco betrayed them?

"I proved my loyalty. You'll have your chance to prove yours soon," answered back Jay enigmatically while turning his attention toward the hero's friends in the other cage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil laugh* let me know your thoughts in the comments.
> 
> Anyone wanna bet how many characters I can kill off before the end of the story? Do you guys have any idea why Cisco didn't attack?
> 
> See you next week for an extra, evil, chapter.


	6. Defeated

"Barry? Barry? Can you hear us?" Caitlin asked, worry lacing her words.

Upon hearing her friend groaning, only a few seconds ago, the woman stood up on her toes to try and take a peek at his friend's condition. No doubt in her mind; she heard it, she heard Barry. Her hunger and fatigue got forgotten the second she got an indication that her friend was probably coming back to the world of the living.

They had been there, trapped, for over 24 hours now, more or less a few hours. It was difficult to calculate the exact amount of time that had passed since they got captured considering none of them was in possession of their watch or cell phone and that there was no clock or window around. Under these circumstances, the notion of time can quickly become a real blur. The only thing the team could be sure of was that every time Barry would come back to his cage, he would come back worse than the last time.

They were all tired, for sure, anyone would be after spending one or two days in such a confined space with only two small meals of thick and disgusting grey mixture of unknown composition that tasted just as bad as it looked. Under these conditions, plus adding the fact that their sleep was short and unrestful, it wasn't surprising that the team wasn't doing too well. Between all of them, Barry was the one who was clearly in the worse condition. Hours after the team got captured, the first symptoms that something wasn't right started appearing and it only deteriorated from there. At first, it wasn't much; tummy aches and heartache, but after the second set of tests and injections, dizzy spell started tormenting the speedster and prompted him to lay down and sleep it off, just for a moment. A long moment. Long enough to wonder if the man was sleeping or passed out.

Either way, the red wearing hero wasn't responding to the voices calling out for him, repeatedly. After a few anxious moments of silence, Caitlin sighed, turned around and sat back on the ground next to her companion.

"Why do you think the serum, or whatever they injected Barry is making him sick while it's not affecting Jay?" Asked Cisco, concern overly present in his voice.

"I'm not sure," admitted Caitlin reluctantly, "but I don't think Jay's completely unharmed. You noticed how reddish his skin seemed to be? Plus, there's also a lot of sweat on his forehead despite the ambient temperature."

It's true that they weren't precisely freezing to death, but it wasn't a sauna either, it wasn't hot enough to sweat like that without another reason. Except, this extra reason could be a lot of other stuff, like pushing his powers earlier. Plus, there was another big hole in their theory; if both speedsters problem originated from the same source, why was Barry getting sick so much faster? Shouldn't be Jay be more vulnerable considering his age? The prisoners were missing something.

"Wish I knew why Galway hadn't killed us," said Caitlin, changing the subject, "why keep us in here?"

"Jay did say Barry was going to need to prove himself, right? If I had to guess, I would say that we're the test," said Cisco, pausing to listen to the silence on the other side of his cage's wall, "I wish I knew why Galway hasn't put his plan into motion yet. What is he waiting for to save his wife?"

Before an answer could come, not that Caitlin had anything in store for that mystery, the silence got broken as the other prisoner started shifting on his prison ground.

"Barry?" Carefully asked Caitlin while getting back up.

Looking through the bars, her glance quickly found the hero's head that appeared on the other side and right in front of her. Appeased to see his friend awake, Cisco smiled softly and got up to meet him.

"Hey guys," greeted the hero with obvious discomfort in his voice thanks to both his still broken shoulder and the symptoms created by what he'd been injected with, "how are you guys? Hanging in there?"

Of course, barely awoken and already anxious and his friends' fate, a classic Barry move. A very classic strategy to divert the attention away from his own pain and toward the others. He might not be handcuffed anymore, but he was still unable to use his regenerative abilities thanks to the wristband, one identical to the one his friends were wearing, decorating his left wrist. To be honest, even if could find a way to get it off, there was still the matter of the cage dampening his powers somehow. As long as he would be inside the prison or, as long as the wristband would be on him, there was no running away or no regenerating his injured shoulder, which was leaving him in constant pain.

The conversation got cut short by flashing yellow lightning that made his stop in front of the speedster's cage. Jay was back.

"You're awake, good," he said with a sinister voice.

When the Earth 3's hero closely approached the group, it gave Vibe the opportunity to observe what Killer Frost's host shared earlier; Jay, indeed, didn't look too well. His face was red, more than Barry's, and an excessive amount of sweat was running down his forehead. Also, his features looked tired and in constant pain, something wasn't right.

"Jay, we can help you," called out Barry while backing up a tad at the sight of armed guards surging out of the darkness and moving toward his cage. Their intention of why they opened the prison door was clear; they were going to grab him and take the speedster away once more.

With nowhere to go in his very confined space, Barry was unable to avoid being taken and forcefully pulled out of his prison under the helpless glances of his friends who knew how futile any of their action would be. That part alone, that feeling of being completely useless, was the most frustrating part.

But, even if it was hopeless, it didn't stop Caitlin from trying anyway to resonate with the older hero:

"We know you're sick. Help us, and we'll help you," Caitlin tried in vain as the guards released their prisoner into Jay's grip who sped away immediately to the other prisoners' dismay.

Deprived of his speed, Barry was utterly powerless and unable to defend himself as wind and lightning took him away from his friends and back into the cold laboratory at the end of the hallway. The room somehow managed to be even colder room than the cage. The metallic chair Barry found himself attached to, with his ankles and wrists tightly secured to the furniture by very tight metallic fasteners, probably wasn't helping to keep a warm body temperature.

The room was almost twice as big as S.T.A.R. Labs' medical room and possessed both a pretty big medical table right in the middle of it and an impressive scan big enough to fit a whole person if needed. The opposite side of the room from where Barry was sitting had an impressive collection of all sort of medical equipment and furniture, some of them placed on a mobile operation tablet. Two shelves with many chemicals were placed at the very end of the same side and were positioned on both sides of the corner right next to the door. On Barry's side of the room, and next to him, was a table with three computers and many analytical instruments like the ones the speedster had in his own lab at CCPD.

Next to the body scan was now placed Jay, standing right alongside a brunette scientist with long auburn hair attached in a braided chignon at the base of her neck. Without hesitation, Jay moved to the closest chair and sat on it before tilting his head to the left, a movement that completely exposed the other side of his neck. Without saying a word, the scientist woman in white lab coat moved closer to the older speedster and pushed a syringe into the man's neck to inject him with an unknown substance.

"We'll increase the dosage tomorrow; it should help you with your symptoms," the woman said, her back still turned on Barry. All the hero wanted to do was protest and shout and try for the hundredth time to reason with his friend.

Except before he even could, the whole hero's attention got drawn away from his friend and his body tensed up at the view of the approaching Daniel Galway. The man was still wearing a usual blue suit and was approaching his victim with an empty syringe in his hand.

"I heard you're still refusing to cooperate," he commented with a tad of annoyance in his voice.

"Leave Jay alone and I'll cooperate," groaned Barry while struggling in vain against his restraints. Despite his efforts, his actions only earned him a strong enough punch on the side of his head to make him see starts and almost make him lose consciousness. But, sadly, the hit wasn't violent enough to numb his body to the point where he wouldn't feel the pain of the long needle breaking his skin and entering his neck.

Blinking away the black spot and the tears in his eyes while hanging to consciousness, Barry saw Galway walked away from him to hand over the blood-filled syringe to the scientist woman who gave him another syringe in exchange. This new one was filled with a thick white serum similar to what she just gave the Earth 3 hero. With his chin and painful head resting on his chest, the Earth 1's speedster couldn't see the woman's face, but, despite the buzzing in his ears, he could still hear the conversation.

"Let's try this version," the woman said, "it should make him as compliant as we need him to."

"What if he doesn't respond to it? We already had some promising results with the last one at this point," replied Galway.

"If nothing changes, we'll try a more invasive procedure tomorrow," confidently answered the woman.

Procedure? What procedure? That simple word sure resonated inside Barry's mind; whatever his captors had in mind, it couldn't be good.

"What if he doesn't survive?" Inquired Daniel with a hint of apprehension in his voice. Of course, it surely wasn't out of concern for the person, but more for the experiment in itself. There was no doubt about that.

"That's fine," answered the sweet and calm woman's voice, "he's not the only speedster we have, he's disposable."

"Alright, let's try this," Daniel finally agreed.

Approaching footsteps forced Barry to summon the strength to look up and to ignore the blood still running down the side of his head from the earlier hit. The woman looked very familiar, but the buzzy noises in his ears and the dizzy spell were making it hard for the speedster to connect the dots.

Clearly none-caring about the fact their prisoner was a person and not some unwanted nuisance, Daniel sharply grabbed and pulled the speedster's hair to put Barry's head on the side before inserting the needle in the hero's neck. It was under the observing, but emotionless, eyes of Jay Garrick that Barry gasped at the harsh treatment.

The burning sensation that filled Barry's veins, the same one he got from the last time he was brought in this lab, spread almost instantly in his entire body. The pain caused his breathing to shortened, but he still, somehow, managed to keep his ears opened and his attention directed at the conversation. A conversation that swiftly turned into something a bit sweeter and more private; these two people's relationship was obviously a step or two ahead of just being co-workers.

"Hope you know how much I love when you're taking charge and making a decision like that?" warmly whispered Daniel to the woman as their bodies grew closer and closer.

"Of course I do."

Despite the fire still coursing through his veins, Barry's blood froze up and a shiver passed in his spine as he suddenly connected the dots. Suddenly, it was like the thunder felt right in front of his feet, or, maybe struck him again; he finally understood what was going on. Barry finally knew who that woman was, seconds before Daniel finally spoke her name out loud, and he didn't want to believe it.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

Back in his cage, Barry was feeling so numb all over in every single one of his limbs that the pain of his broken shoulder was barely registering to his brain at the moment. As the door of his prison was locked once again, Barry crawled to the back wall and slumped himself against it in total silence with his eyes closed. All he wanted right now was to be left alone, but the voices wouldn't stop calling out for him. Opening his eyes and forcing both his mind back to the present and his attention to the higher part of the cage, he spotted the faces of both his best friends looking down at him with obvious anguish.

"Barry? Can you hear us, man?"

"What have they done to you?" No doubt Caitlin could see the blood on the side of his face.

If the speedster knew that staying still and silent would make the problem disappear, he would keep that position forever, but it wasn't going to do a thing to help.

"It's over, we failed," he grimly said instead to break the uncomfortable silence.

"I don't-" trailed Caitlin, frowning in confusion; it wasn't like Barry to give up this easily. They were in a bad position at the moment, for sure, but they managed to get out of worse and seemingly impossible situations during these last four years, why was this time any different?

"We're too late," gravely added Barry with his back still pressed against the back wall. Without moving a single muscle, the hero was staying as far away as possible as to where his friends were, "she's alive."

"Who's al-" started to say Cisco, only to stop as the realization hit him at the same time than Caitlin.

"Polly… Galway's wife, right?" Answered the doctor, earning a quick nod from the speedster.

"I saw her, she was with him in the lab," said Barry slowly, while still refusing to pick himself up from the ground, both physically and mentally.

"Are you sure it was her? Could be some assistant, or maybe he remarried on this Earth too," argued back Cisco which caused Barry to shake his head negatively.

"No, it was her, he said her name before taking me back," said Barry, dejected.

They came here to save Jay before he would get brainwash and before the past would change, but there were too late. For both of these scenarios. They had failed. Daniel managed to send Jay in time and had him saved his wife; the past, the present and the future of Earth 3 were now altered forever, no matter how hard they could try to bring it back as it was. From experience, Team Flash knew that even by putting everything back how it was, things would never be the same.

The heavy silence that followed and the way both Caitlin and Cisco looked down at their feet, defeated, meant everything.

"We lost," tiredly replied Caitlin.

"But, if the timeline has changed while we were on this Earth, shouldn't we like not see the difference?" Asked Cisco, confused and worn out.

"It's probably been this way since before we arrived; I guess that Daniel managed to finish controlling Jay and sent him back in time while we were taking care of the other Cisco and getting ready."

Groaning in frustration, Barry hit the metallic cage, making it resonated in the whole hallway, with his right arm, the one with the broken shoulder. Under the hit, he screamed out louder, mostly out of pain this time. They never should've taken this much time to get ready; they should've jumped into action and on Earth 3 right away without wasting a single second. They wasted precious time and the whole Earth 3 was now paying the price. What was he thinking?

Hell, forget about the two hours, why had they even waited for Caitlin to take care of this Cisco?

"I should've raced to Earth 3 and checked on Jay the second we suspected our visitor was from this Earth," mumbled Barry, mostly for himself.

"Barry," gently said Caitlin, clutching the bars separating her prison from his, "you can't blame yourself. You took the decision that you thought was right at the time."

It wasn't much and everyone knew it wasn't going to stop the speedster from feeling the weight of his mistake crushing him down, but it was always better than nothing. Or, was it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment :) Were you expecting that? Anyone needs a hug or you're still hanging on to hope?


	7. The procedure

The seemingly never-ending silence following the bombshell revelation got finally broken by Cisco, "at least, so far, it's not that bad."

His comment earned him a side glance from his doctor friend standing next to him, "really, Cisco?"

Vibe shrugged in answer, "I'm just saying, there's no sign of the end of the world around. If the timeline got changed before we even set foot on this Earth, we should've seen the consequences before making it to the lab."

"It's not the apocalypse... just yet," completed Barry, sighing and finally deciding to push his good hand on the ground to get back on his shaky feet while supporting himself against the wall, "trust me, when I went to Flashpoint, it took sometimes before things started going bad. Everything ran smoothly for a couple of months. Plus, considering how we don't know anything or anyone on this Earth, except Jay, a lot of terrible things can happen and we wouldn't be able to notice it for a very long time," he pointed out.

True. And true. There was no arguing that.

"I just have one other question; why? " Inquired Cisco, "if his wife never died, why do Daniel and his wife want with speedsters? Why do they need you and Jay for? I mean, why bother capturing Jay and finding a way to control him if all if there was no reason anymore to change the timeline? More than that, why experiment on you too?"

Finally facing his friends and grabbing a bar with his one good hand, Barry lowered his head and shook it slightly, "I wish I knew; they're not chatty about their world domination plan...or whatever else it might be. I have a gut feeling that Polly is the more unstable one and the one we should be scared."

Letting go of his grip, Barry's hand went behind his neck and touched his hot skin's neck, "I'm sorry I dragged you all into this."

"Don't be sorry; you didn't force us to come, remember?" Reminded Caitlin in a faint attempt at reassuring her friend, an effort that failed badly.

"Let's get out of here and fix this mess as much as we can. We might not be able to put everything back together, but we can still put as much back together as we can," added the doctor when none of the boys chose to answer her first comment.

Barry deeply exhaled and didn't say anything, which caused Caitlin's deep to furrowed as her instincts were telling her that something was up and, it wasn't just the fact that they failed on their first objective.

"Barry, what aren't you telling us?"

What was the hero supposed to answer? That he was going to go through some sort of procedure of unknown consequences tomorrow? It's not like his two best friends didn't already have enough reasons to be anxious at the moment, no need to put more on their plate right now, it was better to worry and suffer in silence in a true Barry Allen fashion.

"Nothing to worry about," he quickly dismissed it, too quickly. That and the way he went completely silent and turned his back on his friend took all the doubts away from Caitlin and Cisco. For sure, something wasn't right. But, after sharing a meaningful glance, they decided against pushing it. At least, not right now. Tomorrow, maybe. They knew the Flash well enough to know when he wasn't in a sharing mood. Except, they didn't really get any time to push the issue the following morning as Barry got harshly taken and dragged away from them by the usual two heavily armed men.

If there was one time to get away, it was now or possibly never. Barry knew that but still didn't offer any resistance as he got taken out of his prison. Without saying a word, the speedster just let himself got grabbed under his armpits and pull out with his feet dragging behind his still form.

Overconfident that their prisoner was tainted, none of the two men anticipated the sudden change of energy in the young man dressed in red who suddenly jumped on his feet. Taking advantage of the way the movement freed halfway his unarmed arm Barry strongly and swiftly elbowed the man on his left right in the stomach. Suppressing a shout of pain from his broken shoulder caused by the sharp movement by the opposite side of his body, Barry quickly moved out of the grasp of the first man who stumbled a couple of steps back and shifted his whole-body weight to support himself on his right leg completely. With the adrenaline and the desperation pumping freely through his veins, the hero turned around almost as fast as any none-speedster running champion could've done to throw a left kick at the guard placed on his other side.

Under the surprised, the second guard wasn't fast enough to dodge this attack, nor the second one that instantly followed. Under the encouraging cheers of his friends, Barry's boots connected straight with the second man's groins and sent him on his knees.

Hope was lightning up for one second, just one. The whole chain reaction prompted the smiles of the Team Flash's members to widened at the idea of finally getting out of there and regroup to form a new plan to stop Jay. Speaking of Jay...

Before Barry had the time to grab the cages' key from the guard or knock them out cold, not that it would've really mattered as long as all the Earth 1 superheroes had their powers suppressed, lightning entered the room, took a sharp hold on the hero and disappeared into the darkness with him.

"BARRY!" Called out Cisco while hitting the wall of his cage in frustration. Dammit, so close!

The brainwashed speedster made an abrupt full stop in the medical lab and dropped his prisoner on the table in the middle of it. Dressed in a white lab coat, Polly Galway was finishing putting a medical mask over her neck while advancing the portable metal table closer to their prisoner. Half the surface of it was covered by scalpels and scary operation pieces of furniture that made Barry shiver at the sight.

"He shouldn't be moved without having his hand restrained first," growled Jay to Galway's wife.

"It won't matter after this; just secured him tightly on his side," said Polly while pulling up the surgical mask from her neck and securing it over her mouth and nose.

Polly's hand ghosting over incredibly sharp looking surgical knives was the last image of the woman that Barry got before being violently shoved on his side with his back turned on Polly. Before terror could overtake his mind, Barry found himself, literally in a flash, without the top of his suit and strapped on the table with very strong leather restraints attached to the table. Tightly hold in place and unable to move an inch, Flash or not, hero or not, the CSI trembled out of uncontrollable fear; he surely wasn't ready to be cut open like some lab rat. Who would ever be prepared for that? The only comfort he could find, no matter how small it was in this moment of crisis, was the fact they didn't put him on his right side, the side of his still severely hurting shoulder.

"Wait, please!" He pleaded with shaking lips as shivers were running from head to toes. Barry couldn't see the woman behind him but could hear the distinct metal clicking of instruments being picked up from the table, "I'll do whatever you want, don't do this."

Maybe watching all these horrors movie with Cisco in the last couple of years wasn't such a good idea as the worst possible scenarios submerged Barry's mind as the man just couldn't stop imagining his likely fate.

"You will do we want; you can be sure of that. Just try not to move too much," answered the muffled voice of the woman.

The sharp edge of a scalpel pressuring the back of the speedster's neck increased his tremors. No, the pain wasn't the main reason for his uncontrollable twitching, he endured way worst at the hand of countless enemies, he was shaking out of pure distress. Whatever the endgame was, a scalpel digging in his neck couldn't end well. A loud groan left his lips as the instrument pierced his skin and touched a pretty sensible nerve. During the whole thing, Jay just stood there, watching in silence and staying emotionless.

"Stay still, you idiot!" Groaned Polly while leaning so close to her non-consenting patient that he could feel her breath brushing his skin despite the mask she was wearing.

"There, there," said scary calm Daniel's voice. Of all the three people in the room, it seemed like Jay was the only one who noticed the man's entrance, "you don't want to risk paralysing our guinea pig, don't you?"

"It's not my fault if he's too stupid to stay still," groaned his wife, still profoundly concentrated in her work, before cutting down the neck with a sickening suction sound that blended with the additional grunts of pain from Barry.

"Take this; it should keep him calm," casually said Daniel in the same tone he would use to discuss which restaurant they should go out tonight. A comment about how crazy they both were would've left the hero's lips if he wasn't biting them so hard in an attempt to keep his pain and discomfort hidden.

The fact the speedster was still wholly blind to everything happening behind him was only increasing his heart rate and panic; every muscle of his entire body was incredibly tensed and sweat was running down, more like cascading, down his reddish forehead. A needle brutally entered his neck skin seconds later without any warning. Why would these apparent psychopaths have cared about warning anyway? All Barry could wish at the moment was that whatever he'd been injected with this time was something that was either going to dull the pain or render him unconscious. At this point, there was no avoiding his fate; might as well hope to go through it with minimum suffering.

Temporary relief washed the speedster's mind for a second as the area surrounding the injection zone quickly started to tickle and grow numb; his wish was coming true. Except, the person in charge of the procedure wasn't too keen on waiting much longer as the skin around the new wound got harshly parted apart to allow a hand to come playing under it, causing Barry to shout out at the unexpected pain. If the cement walls were surely keeping the top level from hearing his desperation cries, there was no doubt the sound went all the way to his friends.

Whatever it was that started pulling the speedster to the darkness, the injection or the pain, Barry couldn't care as he gladly allowed his eyes to close before surrendering to the sweet, painless, unconsciousness.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"No!" Boomed Caitlin's voice as she sharply woke up and sat on her cage, drenched in sweat. In the process, she accidentally hustled Cisco who was standing right next to up 'til that moment.

Her action prompted the engineer to go back on his knees next to her and to grab her by the shoulders to ground his friend back to reality.

"Barry? Where is he?" She asked, her eyes darting around, disoriented.

As Caitlin looked past the engineer like he wasn't there, Cisco forced her to look straight at his face, "hey, hey, easy there. He's not here, he hasn't come back," he said, but not without biting his bottom lips.

The ability to calculate precisely the passing of time had been lost since the moment they entered the basement, but, for sure, it had been days. It had also been days since their dear friend and hero had last been seen at their side. If their captors were feeding them once a day, it had been about three days and since then, neither Caitlin nor Cisco managed to get any glimpse of their best friend since his last attempt at making a run for it by beating the guards up. Barry's absence was worrying them more than anything else, more than they were willing to admit and more than their own fate.

"As long as Galway is keeping us alive, it means Barry is too," repeated Cisco for the hundredth time since the doctor first mentioned the possibility their captor might have decided the CSI wasn't worth all the trouble he was bringing.

"I can't get his screams out of my head," admitted Caitlin, closing her eyes as she bit her lip, "what's gonna happen to us if he's really..."

"I refuse to believe that. Barry's alive, I know it," firmly said Cisco, even without any proof whatsoever to support his claim.

His mostly empty stomach growled again and made the young hero put his right hand over his painful belly that was screaming for food. The small portion he received earlier only managed to wake his hunger up instead of filling his stomach.

The creaking of the reinforcement door opening was heard, but neither friends moved an inch. Since they two prisoners had already eaten in the past couple of hours or so, it was surprising that anyone was in that area at the moment as the only people they had seen in the last couple of days were the armed men bringing them disgusting looking, and tasting, food and half-empty glasses of water. But, at this point, the pair of friends couldn't care who it was.

If the sound didn't make them move, the sight of yellow lightning had them both jump on their feet.

"Jay?" Asked Caitlin, fearfully. Was the speedster coming to execute them?

"Barry?" Opted to inquire Cisco, hanging on to hope and wishful thinking.

Despite the dim light, the red suit that was wearing that tall figure was unmistakable and, as the man walked forward, his identity got confirmed.

"Barry!" Shouted both friends together in joy, rushing forward and grabbing the bars.

It was him. The speedster was there, alive, free and without any anti-power wristband or handcuffed or anything like that.

"Way to go, man!" Joyfully exclaimed Cisco, barely able to contain himself as he saw a key in his friend's hands. They were going out after all, "come on, get us out."

Walking forward, Barry approached the cage and took his cowl down to finally reveal his features; his ominous ones completed with his mysterious smile. He then just stood right in front of the cage, pausing, with the key in his hand.

"Barry?" Slowly, carefully, asked Vibe without realizing he had taken a step back. Something wasn't right.

"Oh, you're going out. And you're never coming back in this cage," announced Barry with a very deep voice's tone while looking back as both Daniel and Polly Galway were joining him behind.

"Oh my God," whispered Killer Frost's host, shaking all over and backing up as well. Hope was lost after all. Game over.

"Take them in the testing room," instructed Polly, with a small and weird shaped controller of who-knows-what in her hand. Her thumb was moving around on each side of the two buttons on it, a motion that wasn't lost on all the Earth 1 heroes.

Nodding his understanding of the command, Barry inserted the key in the door and opened it widely to gain access to his two friends.

"What have you done with him?" Angrily shouted Cisco to the Galway's who acted like they didn't even hear the question, "what are you going to do with us?"

The way, not long after getting caught, Jay spoke about Barry needing to prove himself came back dashing inside Vibe's mind. Could it be? What was Barry going to do with them? Were they doomed? Unless, maybe, just maybe, Barry was just faking it. He had to! Flash could just be pretending long enough to get free of his power-dampening devices and run his friends out. He had that first part taken care of, so that was good. Hope might not be lost entirely.

Instead of running everyone out, Barry stepped inside and took a firm hold on Cisco's shirt and was about to do the same with the doctor, but Polly spoke up again.

"Just don't forget; if you're trying to trick us, you're not going to get very far," she reminded, waving the controller.

"That won't be needed," Barry answered instantly, getting a firm grip on both his friends.

"Good… have you decided which one of them you want to kill first?" Asked the woman again, confident and in charge of the situation, "maybe you could lend us the second one while you're busy taking your first life," she added, smiling viciously.

"K….ki...kill?" Cisco gulped, it was just as he feared and the doctor's petrified eyes reflected the same emotion than him at the moment.

"I'll take pleasure in taking that one's life," said Barry without hesitation as he let go of Caitlin and jostled up the breacher, his eyes flashing with anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwa mwa mwa...*cough* Sorry I meant; hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment, always so deeply appreciated.
> 
> Let's start the bets, is Barry gonna *gasp*kill*gasp* his friends?


	8. Death of Vibe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, this chapter's title is a nod/easter egg to the 5x03 title. Leaving it to you to discover the meaning of it in the story. Enjoy!

Speeding ahead of his captors, Barry made a quick and full stop in a circular room with pale blue walls. All around the testing room, as Galway called it a moment earlier, was dark blue with red pillars going all the way from the floor to the ceiling composed mostly of lights. In fact, they looked like a giant version of the power dampening wristband and handcuffed Team Flash got accustomed to since getting captured, except for that fact the lights of the pillars were all off. A little detail that was allowing the speedster to keep moving around at abnormal velocity.

Not too far from the main door was another one, a reinforced door that was partly opened at the moment to allow the two men inside the testing room to get a peek of the beginning of a staircase. These circular stairs were no doubt leading to the small observation room located a good fifteen feet above the floor, and anyone who would get inside this small space would be able to get a clear view to what was about to unfold downstairs thanks to the thick bulletproof glass.

At this very instant, nobody seemed to be up there. For that matter, there was no one in this whole place other than Cisco and the speedster himself. As soon Barry released his grip on the engineer, Cisco moved back in terror as tremors were running down in every single part of his body under the intense and continuous glare he was receiving from his friend. One quick glance behind the red hero gave the breacher another info; the door they just entered by wasn't wholly closed either, they could still make a run for it. Well, it would only work if Cisco could bring his friend out of his stupor, something that wasn't going to be easy.

"Come on, man, it's me, it's Cisco. I'm your best friend. Let's get out of this room, grab Caitlin and leave while we still can," he desperately tried.

When Flash made one more step toward his direction, the terrified Cisco backed off by twice that distance. Of course, he knew how futile his reaction was, but what else was he supposed to do? One glance over his shoulder confirmed that it wasn't going to be long 'til he would hit the wall and, as long as he was still wearing his flashing wristband, while Barry was free, there was no way he could run away without getting caught again. Cisco knew he wouldn't even make it to the door.

Gulping in fear, Cisco took an extra step back to extend the distance between him and his friend, a friend who was about to murder him in cold blood.

"Please, Barry, you know me. I'm Vibe, your BFF; you don't have to do this."

The silence that followed was even more terrifying than any answer Cisco could've received. Titling his head on his right, upon hearing a sound coming from behind the speedster, Vibe caught the sight of the Galway entering the room. Both were calmly walking in front of a guard who was harshly pushing Caitlin to keep her moving.

Under the last violent shove, the defenceless woman stumbled so badly that she almost went crashing down face first and, she probably would've if it weren't for the guard taking a strong grab, strong enough to leave a mark, on her left arm. The gesture sure wasn't out of gallantry and the grunt of displeasure that followed from having to drag her weight was proof of that.

Once everyone was inside the testing room, Polly turned around for an instant to close the door and sealed it by putting the palm of her hand on the digital scanner. There was no getting out now, powers or no powers. After that was done, she turned around and rejoined her husband who was slowly, but surely, making his way toward the stairs.

"Shouldn't we wait for our other speedster to return? Just in case," gently asked Daniel as he allowed his wife to pass first the reinforced door leading to the observation room. A real gentleman, right?

"It won't be necessary, this one should perform accordingly," affirmed Polly as she walked in front of her husband and headed straight to the stairs.

The unstable woman barely wasted a second to take a look behind her at Caitlin who was desperately trying to free herself. Imitating Barry's attempt from a couple of days ago, the doctor sent her elbow flying in the direction of the guard's stomach to destabilize him and gain an opening. Or, at least, that was the intention, but the armed man in black easily avoided Caitlin's attack and hit her back violently in the ribs with his gun handle.

The cry of sudden pain that escaped Frost's host lips was lost on her captors, but not on Cisco who cried out for her, "Caitlin!"

The two friends' glances locked on each other for half a second, mentally screeching for help and comfort. It didn't last too long as the doctor broke the connection and chose to use the last instants she was going to have before dragged into the stairs to try and make one last try at resonating the Flash. Barry, her friend, had to still be under there, somewhere, he just had to!

"Barry! Snap out of this! Help us!" She shouted just before she got dragged away and forced to cooperate if she didn't want to faceplant in the stairs straight ahead.

As the group made it inside the observation room and looked down at the two men, the Galways, Caitlin and the guard observed together that Barry's left hand was now firmly grabbing the engineer shoulder and squeezing it tight. There was no escape for the breacher.

Looking up at the bulletproof window, Barry spoke up to his masters for confirmation, "should I proceed?"

Despite the fear shaking her to the core as Caitlin was bracing herself for what she was about to witness, the scientist frowned; was that hesitation she caught in Barry's voice? Maybe it was just wishful thinking as it didn't seem like anyone else spotted it. She was going to know in just a moment if she was imagining things or not.

Polly grabbed the microphone connected to the wall from inside the room to answer, "go ahead and make sure there's no life left in him."

Completely emotionless, Barry slowly, almost solemnly, nodded before turning back his attention to the man who used to be his best friend, a his who was frozen in overwhelming dread. The speeder's right hand rose up high, over his shoulders, and started vibrating; Barry was utterly unaffected by the tears now running down Cisco's cheeks.

"Please, Barry, you don't have to do this," pleaded the engineer, bawling and attempting one last time to save his skin.

"I don't have to. I want to," corrected Barry.

The newly turned speedster was smiling viciously; he had won, and he knew it. Playing with his prey like a cat before striking the killing blow, Barry rose and moved down his arm a couple of times, which caused his victim to jostle at every one of his movement.

"I'm begging you man, ple-" continued Cisco.

Groaning in frustration at the slow process, Polly grabbed the mic again, "enough of this! Just put him out of his misery, now!" she ordered.

If she wasn't considering her times as Killer Frost, this was the coldest Caitlin had ever felt in her entire life. Emotions were shaking her deep down into her soul. When did her cheeks get wet for that matter? She didn't even remember starting crying. Every fibre of her body was screaming at her to look away and pretend she was anywhere else, but she couldn't detach her glance from the scene happening in front of her. It was like her muscles were not obeying her commands anymore like she was having an out of body experience.

Maybe it was just the shock that was settling, already.

Without any more warning, the vibrating hand penetrated Vibe's chest. When the hero completely stopped moving and violently gasped, eyes wide open, the whole world stopped for the doctor.

"NOOOOO! CISCO!" She shouted at the top of her lungs at the same time she felt her legs going weak. It was like her own heart had been crushed at the same time as her best friend and for one second, she thought she was going to pass out on the spot.

"About damn time," muttered Polly under her breath, unimpressed by the scene.

"Good, good," simply commented Daniel, brushing his cheek and smiling at his new guinea pig now under his control.

Barely one blink of an eye later, Barry's hand exited his friend's chest and the engineer's body dropped like a rock on the cold hard floor, unmoving.

No no no no no, it wasn't happening. Cisco couldn't be dead. Especially not killed by the Flash. Cisco couldn't have been killed by Barry Allen himself.

In one sharp motion, fed by all the adrenaline suddenly flooding her bloodstream, Caitlin sharply yanked herself free from the guard and started dashing down.

"Let her," instructed Daniel as he saw the guard reacting and jumping to go take back hold on his prisoner. The doctor was not going to get very far with the exit door still tightly sealed and his new guard dog, Earth 1 Flash himself, could take her down just as quickly as he just did with the other powerless Meta.

The mixed emotions of grief and anger were the only things keeping the doctor from passing out from what she just witnessed. Running down the stairs like an Olympic champion and making it to the lower level of the testing room, Caitlin opened the door widely and covered the distance separating her from her too-still friend on the ground in a couple of large strides.

"Please be okay. Please be okay," whispered Caitlin to herself over and over again as she dropped on her knees next to Cisco and at Barry's feet. Of course, she knew. She knew that there was no surviving a speedster crushing your heart from the inside.

But, maybe, just maybe, there was still a good part of Barry that unconsciously made him hold back just a tad. Maybe Barry's subconscious forced him to hold back enough strength to only stunned his friend and not killed him. It probably was wishful thinking, but it's all Caitlin had left right now.

Desperately struggling to hang on to hope, no matter how thin it was, Caitlin dug her fingers deep into Vibe's neck and held her breath.

As if the skin under her hand was on fire, she retracted her hand as soon as she made contact, except it wasn't out of physical pain, but out of pure dread of what she might find. Did she really want to know? Her stomach turned in her belly and threatened to send back the infinitely small amount of subsistence it received earlier at the single thought of feeling the deathly stillness she was probably going to find. Gulping her building agony, the scientist swallowed her remaining saliva and gathered her courage before pressing hard and digging deep again on her friend's neck.

"Please Cisco, please..." she begged as her ongoing tears fell and splashed on the too still hero.

Unable to find a single beating, other than her pulse racing in her chest and her ears, Caitlin held her breath back. Time was frozen. Every second felt like hours, like an eternity for her shocked body. It was probably the same sensation the speedsters were experimenting as they were running. With every new passing second where she found herself unable to find a single sign of life, time slowed down even more.

Turning her head around, she glared at the emotionless Barry and spilled out, "what have you done?! You killed him!"

She didn't even see, nor care for that matter, Daniel Galway walking past her and the speedster to kneel on the other side of the engineer to take the man's vitals for himself. When Galway pressed his fingers in Cisco's neck, Caitlin felt rage rising in her mind. These filthy hands had no place touching her friend!

"He is dead," confirmed Daniel, after a few moments, to his wife who smiled victoriously in return.

Still feeling the anger burning deep in every fibre in her body, Caitlin jumped to her feet and moved face to face with Barry. Brainwashed or not, controlled or not, how could he have done that? How could he have killed his best friend?

"What did you do‽ He trusted you! I TRUSTED YOU!" She screamed, way-way too loud for the very short distance, not even a couple of inches, separating her from the speedster.

Completely ignoring the doctor's burst of emotions and avoiding eyes contact, Barry looked over Caitlin and glanced at the Galway with his arms going behind his back.

"Shall I dispose of the body in the river?" He requested using a monotonous tone.

Daniel got back up and looked at his wife for confirmation.

"I'd be honoured to do this one extra deed for you," added Barry without bothering to look down at the engineer at his feet, nor at the grieving woman who apparently didn't appreciate being ignored in that way.

"He was your friend!" Added Caitlin, screaming again, "look at me!"

Obtaining no answer, she rose her right hand and slapped the speedster across his left cheek with all the force and growing resentment she had, efficiently breaking the skin with her nails.

If it weren't for Barry's healing powers, it would have surely left a mark tomorrow. Her actions caused Polly to chuckle and Barry to grab the doctor by the throat with only one hand. Being dragged up, Caitlin found herself forced to stand on the tip of her toes to avoid her windpipe to be blocked entirely.

"Maybe you want to be next," insinuate Barry before vibrating his other hand with an ominous smile.

"What should I do with that one?" He requested while pressing harder on the woman's throat, hard enough to cut most of her oxygen supply in an instant.

Husband and wife looked at each other once more for confirmation, before shrugging almost simultaneously.

"She's of no use, you can take her out too and dispose of both bodies if you desire," said Polly, earning a nod of approval.

Part of the doctor wanted to give up everything and let the darkness take over; what was the point of continuing after losing both of her best friends at the same time? Except, her survival instinct wouldn't let it go without a fight as she lifted a leg from the ground to kick, multiple times, her aggressor.

Of course, it didn't have any effect. What was Caitlin really expecting? Unable to avoid her fate, the woman closed her eyes and waited for her upcoming demise; a little something that didn't come. Instead, she heard the vibrations of the hand that wasn't holding her coming to a stop. Plus, the pressure around her neck loosened just a bit.

That was unexpected.

"Isn't she more valuable alive?" The speedster surprisingly inquired. It wasn't only a surprise to his struggling victim, but also to the Galway who both frowned.

Despite the lack of air in her brain, Caitlin could see that being questioned by their defeated puppet wasn't something the Galway wasn't really expecting and, now that Killer Frost's host thought about it, she hadn't seen Jay say a word against his orders, not once.

"She has a lot of skills we can exploit," added the speedster as he threw Caitlin on the ground, where she landed on all four.

In and out, in and out. Air was burning as it was finally being allowed back inside her body. But, despite this, breathing again was still the greatest sensation she'd ever experienced.

"She's a very skilled physician and very strong ice controlling Meta, she could be very useful," repeated Barry, maybe a tad too insistent.

"We already have a great doctor here," Daniel answered, gesturing toward his wife who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you can get rid of her," instantly agreed Polly who pointed at the man lying on the ground, "and makes sure to clean this garbage away while you're at it before it starts to sting in here."

The building tension in the hero disappeared as he lowered his head in submission, "I'm sorry for speaking up without being invited to," he apologized. His right forearm rose up to meet his forehead and clean the excessive sweating away. "I'm worried that my strengths are diminishing too fast for me to serve you for long. I figured out her bio-engineer skills could really come in useful for figuring out a way to improve the serum."

While she was still on the ground, and on all fours, Caitlin made sure to avoid looking at Cisco's body while listening to her fate being debated. No, she wasn't going to help the psychopaths take more lives. Struggling to go back on her knees, she courageously looked up at Barry.

"I'll never help your plan; you better kill me now."

"I think we have our answer," commented Daniel, amused by the conversation but his wife preferred to stay silent and slowly rubbed her chin.

"Alright, let's see what you can get out of her," finally yielded Polly.

"Give me twenty-four hours with her. If she fails, I'll kill her tomorrow," said Barry to his interlocutor who nodded.

"So be it, you have twenty-four hours."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Gasp* What did you guys think? Is there any hope left for Barry and Caitlin?
> 
> Leave a comment, they're why I keep the motivation to keep writing.


	9. Got you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, guys, I love all of your reactions. I really was so grateful to hear what you thought about my big last chapter. Keep them coming :) And for everyone wondering how dark this could/will get, or are still in shock from the last chapter, all I can say is that next week will bring a lots of answers.

One quick push of the lowest button of the controller, the one Polly had been holding since she escorted her newly acquired speedster to his old friends for their execution, was the signal Barry had been waiting for. Yellow lightning and sparkles flashed all around his body for half a second before he took off and disappeared alongside the unmoving form of the person who used to be his best friend. Doing so, he left Caitlin on her own in the testing room and on her knees. No matter how bad things got, especially in the last couple of years, she always found comfort knowing she had her friends by her side, but now? She might not be physically alone since her captors were still in the room with her, but she never felt so lonely in her entire life.

Burying her head in her hands, the doctor let herself break down and cry, wishing she was dead too.

"Take her to the research lab," Polly coldly ordered.

That cold-hearted woman wasn't going to allow a single minute of this twenty-four hours deadline to be spent crying and grieving.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"Good job, Ralph," greeted Joe as the stretchy hero walked back into the lab after a job well done.

"Meh, it was just a bunch of common bank robbers. It wasn't a problem to deal with them," dismissed Ralph Dibny while walking to the closest chair he could find, behind the computers, sitting on it and placing his feet on the table with his usual calm demeanour.

"Them, plus the ones from this morning and the runaway car yesterday," Iris reminded him, "you're keeping busy."

"Didn't realize you were keeping score," proudly said Ralph, literally pumping his chest. "You should probably go get your old job back at the newspapers now to ensure I have the front-page tomorrow morning."

Putting back his feet on the ground, Ralph turned his chair slightly on itself to get a better view at Joe, frowning, "shouldn't you be back home with Cecile and your daughter? It's getting late."

"Criminals seem to slowly realize the Flash hasn't been showing up in the last couple of days," Joe opted to say while scrubbing his bear, instead of answering the question, "it's been a while since they left."

"We haven't heard anything, yet," confirmed Iris to answer her dad's silent question of her dad. The detective's worry was, no doubt, the real reason why he came by the lab before going home and nobody could blame him for that.

No matter how confident they all were in the team's ability to overcome dangerous situations, it would be a lie to say the prolonged absence wasn't concerning.

"It shouldn't be taking this long... We should've heard something by now," said Joe, stating the obvious and causing his daughter to get closer and take her father in a robust and warm hug.

"They're strong, they'll be back," she told him even if she barely believed it herself. When Barry's life was a stake, it was difficult to stay calm and rational, but they had to be.

"If they're not back by tomorrow, I'll get there myself and bring them back," said Ralph, dead seriously with his features becoming tense and determined.

You know the time for games was over when even Ralph Dibny would stop messing around and start to mean business.

"And how exactly are you planning to go on Earth 3 without breaching powers or super speed?" Inquired Iris, "and once there, how do you expect to find them?"

Going blind in this mess could easily be one of the reasons why the team had somehow found themselves stuck.

Half insulted, the P.I. tightly crossed his arms on his chest and moved his nose, "there's no mystery this Ralphy boy can't solve."

Here was the non-seriousness Ralph was known for when he was nervous or afraid, two things he was probably feeling concerning his friends' fate. The preparation for his rescue mission would need to wait for a few extra moments as the laboratory's alarm erupted.

"Now what?" Mumbled Ralph.

 _We're coming, Barry, Caitlin, Cisco...Just hang in there a couple of extra hours, Please, hang in there,_  thought Iris as she quickly moved behind the computers to investigate the source of this alarm.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

The third and last room of this level was possibly the smallest of them but was still at least just as big as Barry's crime lab at the police station. The white room was filled with tables and many types of analytical equipment; needles, test tubes, beakers, flasks, watch glasses, burners, microscope, etc.

The list just went on and on. Nothing was missing. There already were test tubes filled by multiple, known and unknown, substances laying on the working desk behind the one Caitlin was currently sitting at under the supervision of Barry. The hero-turned-bad was standing silently in the corner and observing every single move of the doctor.

While the temperature was chilly for sure in the room, like it was for the whole basement, it didn't stop Barry from sweating profusely. The way the speedster grunted again out of obvious discomfort caught the attention of the working doctor, but she didn't say a thing, opting instead to wipe her runny nose on the smelly sleeve of her vest she had been wearing non-stop for the last three days.

Bringing the sleeve up her face, Caitlin took the time to also wipe her watery eyes in order to clean her vision before taking another look in the microscope where she was currently analysing the blood sample she had under her eyes. Her captors allowed her to get her hands on a sample of Jay's blood to study what was making the speedsters sick and why it was only working on this type of Metahuman.

Right now, even at this early stage of her ongoing analyses, she was able to identify the virus as being the same one she spotted in Earth 3 Cisco's blood sample. While working, part of the doctor couldn't help but wonder; why bother? She was going to die in less than 24 hours no matter what she would or wouldn't find, and all her data would only feed these psychopaths' projects.

A sudden sob escaped her lips and forced her face away from her work to focus on her increasing difficult breaths that were becoming shorter and shorter 'til her chest was in physical pain.

"Cisco-" she sobbed under her laborious breathing. Her body was back at violently shaking from the still vivid memory of the terrifying scene she witnessed earlier. Everything was over.

Her elbows found themselves on the desk, and her head wanted to bury itself in her hands once more, but a firm hand took grasp of her wrist.

"Don't try to gain time; no slacking on the job," Barry growled dangerously as his grasp was strong enough to hurt, "nobody's coming for you."

"My friend just died, you killed him! He was your friend too!" She spat back, not caring if that was going to earn her a slap or, maybe, a hand through her ribcage. What was the point? She lost Cisco, and in a way, Barry too, during the same day.

The instant her eyes met Barry's glance, she choked up and froze like every single bit of heat in her body got drawn away by the cold hand of Death that suddenly grabbed her very soul. She had seen coldness and lack of emotions in the man that used to be a hero earlier, but this, this was different and eerie beyond words. The hatred and venom that starred right back weren't Barry's; they were barely human.

Her utterly dry mouth and throat prevented her from answering anything back. The only sound that came out of her lips was a shout of pain when her wrist got crushed a bit tighter.

"Stop...please," she begged shaking.

"Just, find what's causing this," coldly answered Barry while pointing at his ill features.

Caitlin held back another snarky comment as she took another close look at the speedster; Barry looked really, really bad. Somehow, only in the last hour or so, skin rashes had appeared on his skin and cheeks. Plus, even though her vest, the doctor could feel the intense heat radiating from him, just like she could feel the uncontrollable tremors. Barry wasn't dead, just yet, but at the look of it, he was going to be soon enough and deep down, Caitlin knew that if Cisco were still there, he wouldn't want her to give up on their friend.

If role had been reversed, Caitlin knew the engineer would keep hoping and working 'till his last breath. Cisco would've wanted her to find a cure and save both speedsters and he would've wanted her to bring Barry back to his family. Maybe, one day, she was herself going to find the strength to forgive the CSI for what he's done even if, deep down, she knew he wasn't in control of his actions.

Who knows how long it would take for the man to forgive himself for his actions?

Groaning, Barry let go of the scientist woman and suddenly stumbled for no apparent reason, before quickly catching the corner of the desk to stay on his feet. Despite everything that transpired, the sudden movement kicked in Caitlin's instinct, screaming at her to get up and help, but she managed, barely, to contain herself. After a couple of uncertain steps, the speedster found back his balance and moved away while grabbing his painful head between his two hands.

"I'll bring you home, Barry," she whispered to herself, deciding she couldn't let him die too.

The doctor still had some time to figure out what was wrong and bring the hero home.

"I need a new sample of blood, of your blood," she demanded before the speedster was too far away to hear her voice.

When Barry stopped and turned around without saying a word; a sigh of relief washed through the whole young woman's body. The gaze of the Reaper was gone from the CSI's features, replaced by his newfound coldness. Moving back, Barry rolled up his right sleeve, exposing his arm, and silently put it on the table next to the woman who was looking around for the closest needle while gently massaging her badly sore wrist thanks to the man's mistreatment of it.

"Don't worry, Barry, I'll help you," she said. Not that she was expecting an answer; she would've better chances of discussing with a brick wall.

Barely controlling her trembles, Caitlin wiped clean the targeted spot on the skin before entering the empty needle in the crook of the unflinching man's elbow.

"I hope one day you'll be able to forgive yourself for your actions," she said to cover the disturbing silence, which caused Barry to look away from her. "There, all done," she said before taking the needle out and taking possession of the blood-filled syringe.

A flash of lightning suddenly appearing from beyond the door attracted Barry's attention who straightened himself up.

"Keep an eye on her," instructed Barry to the two guards standing silently at the corner of the room before moving away and out of the laboratory. He had a job to do.

After closing the door behind him, the speedster entered the adjacent room, the one he endured the procedure in and where Jay was now sitting on a chair next to the medical bed. The older speedster was tightly holding his right arm against his chest and his left ankle was in an unnatural angle. Not very far from there were both Galway, arguing. Obviously, things didn't go as planned.

"Were we able to secure the target?" Asked Barry once entering the room. The answer wasn't going to be a surprise.

"This one failed at his task," Polly grunted, nodding at the seated speedster who was scratching his neck at the location of a quickly forming skin rash. It was actually the first one that appeared on the veteran speedster.

"I told you he wasn't in good enough shape to accomplish the task, we should've sent both of them," argued Daniel with both of his hands on his waist and looking upset.

"We weren't sure about this one's allegiance; you really wanted to let him out there unsupervised?" Answered his wife with her glance moving between the two speedsters and her husband.

"Oh sure, it's so much better now that Vlamal knows we're coming after and-"

"Oh please," interrupted Polly, grunting between her teeth, "he had known we would be coming after him eventually since he stole my researches and he has no way to be sure we're in control of speedsters."

Her annoyance was obvious; the perfect mastermind couple wasn't so happy after all.

"How about sending the two of them into battle now?" Proposed Daniel who was looking at both speedsters as Barry went to stand behind the older hero, waiting for his next instructions.

Waiting for the next order, Barry took the opportunity to get a firm grasp on the back of the chair Jay was sitting on to ensure he would stay upright. The motion wasn't as subtle as he thought it was.

"They won't last long, especially this one-" answered Polly, pointing at the barely standing Flash.

"Good thing we have a backup, let's get her ready. And, make sure not to wait too long before sending her off," offered Daniel before turning his back on his two puppets like they weren't even there.

"If we mess her up too and these two dies, we'll be back where we started. We need to be careful."

"Maybe if you shouldn't have ordered our last guinea pig to murder his companions so fast, the short one might've been useful," argued Daniel Galway again with his hands entangled together and in constant movement.

The annoyance of his wife could be heard clearly in the deep breath that followed, "we can barely make our formula work on speedsters for some reason, forget about making it work on him or anyone else. That's, of course, unless that stupid brunette in the other room can find a way to fix that. And I doubt dissecting him would've helped us a lot either, we need to keep going in the same direction we're heading."

The tension in the room was palpable and the silence seemed endless, enough for the speedster to wonder if, and who, was going to start yelling first. But, in the end, Daniel sighed and yielded.

"All right. How about this; let's give this brunette the remaining time and if she doesn't find a cure, we'll send our speedsters before it's too late."

For the first time since the beginning of the whole argument, Polly smiled and passed her right arm behind her companion, "I love you, never forget it," she tenderly said before her features hardened and turned toward the two speedsters.

"Just make sure that woman is never alone in the lab for the next twenty-three hours," she instructed to the two heroes who both nodded, "now leave us."

Neither Galway wasted another second to look at the men who walked, or limped, their way out.

The following twenty hours or so felt like an eternity for Caitlin who worked tirelessly against the clock to find a cure or anything of the sort to help both her friends while barely running on fumes. Every time she would doze off, or maybe passed out from exhaustion, she would get brutally awaken by either of the speedsters. No matter how little sleep she was having and how worn up she was, she was still behind in the worst-looking-person-in-the-room contest; Barry's skin rashes were now covering most part of his exposed face, neck and hands and most of them had horrible infected looking scabs and pimples.

Carefully extracting one drop of an unknown greenish mixture she found in the test tubes next to her, Caitlin added it to part of the last Barry's blood sample she obtained and pushed it under the microscope. As the doctor leaned over the equipment, her lips twitched after a few observation moments.

"So, this is why… got you," she whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Anyone have an idea who the ''backup'' might be? Or what Caitlin found?
> 
> I promise I have a big surprise coming in the next chapter, one you'll like. Also put a huge shoutout to a wonderful person in this chapter, so if ''Vlama(l)'' sounds familiar to you, it's probably cause it is ;)


	10. Diversion

The moment these words came out of her mouth, ' _so, this is why….got you_ ', Caitlin bit her lips and her eyes darted all around the room. It was once she was done saying this sentence that Caitlin realized she just sold out the fact she made some discovery, one she didn't want her captors to know. At the moment, the only people with her were two guards and Barry who was sitting at the other side of the room with his hands massaging his forehead and scratching one real ugly rash on it.

Thankfully, it didn't look like anyone heard what she said. Good. Barry, or the Galway, didn't have to know her advancement as it would only lead to them using it to their advantage or deciding they had no used for the doctor anymore. Or, maybe, both of these options. If only Cisco were still there, he would know what to do. Caitlin's heart clenched tightly in her chest at the sudden thought of her lost friend.

After forcing her grieving mind to stop thinking about the engineer, the doctor moved her attention away from her work and turned her head around to get a better look at the sick speedster, worried twitching her stomach. Oh God, Barry seemed worse every time she looked at him.

 _Hang in there, Barry, I'll get you out, and I'll save you_ , she thought while surely not expecting the chain of event that was about to happen mere seconds later.

When a sudden bright blue light started forming in the room, adrenaline unexpectedly filled Caitlin's veins and she jumped on her feet faster than her conscious mind could comprehend what she was reacting to. Her survival instinct was kicking in; there was the chance she had been waiting. Whatever was happening, whether it was allies or not there were about to disturb the criminal couple's plans, it didn't matter because, either way, it was a diversion. It was the opportunity Caitlin needed, and she was going to make the most of it. Quickly, Caitlin grabbed the test tubes containing the substances she'd been testing and also took the remaining, unused, sample of Barry's blood. In one swift motion, she put everything in her vest pocket when no one was looking.

Turning on her heels, the doctor stretched her tired legs with the intention of dashing through the door but stopped when she glanced over her shoulder and instantly recognized the formation of a portal, a breacher's portal. Which breacher was about to appear? One she knew, like Gypsy?

The face of the second person who jumped out of the portal and landed gracefully on the cold laboratory room was wholly lost on the doctor as the unmistakable form next to it got all her attention. Caitlin only saw that uniform once, but she recognized it without a doubt; it was Earth 3's Cisco. It was the person who unexpectedly appeared on their Earth asking for help and the one who died to deliver his message. The hole on the side of the black jacket and the traces of blood around were proof it. Well, there was one difference: the yellow, black and red hoodie wasn't cut open anymore.

Could Caitlin be wrong? Could it be a whole new Cisco? No matter which Earth this one was coming from, seeing another Cisco froze the woman in place as all of her emotions rose back.

"Cis-" she started mouthing with difficulty.

The mystery Vibe rose both his hands and pointed them toward Barry, ready for battle, and he wasn't the only one considering the lightning now sparkling all over the other man's body. No warning was given before Vibe made his move, there was no time for that. Squinting eyes and shaking arms were obvious signs the breacher was in deep concentration as he intensively stared at the speedster who suddenly started receiving weird and translucent waves of energy.

"What the-" exclaimed Barry as he extended his legs with the clear intention of attacking, but only managed to put a foot forward before stumbling, without being able to connect with his superspeed. The man then crashed on his knees.

Shock and surprise were written all over his features. Groaning under the effort, Barry seized the corner of the closest desk just before the door widely opened to reveal a not-so-happy Jay accompanied by a group of two armed guards.

"Time to go!" Grunted Vibe under the efforts while keeping his left arm pointed toward Barry and orienting his right one at Jay.

The hero's shout snapped Caitlin out of her stupor. Swiftly, she took hold on the heaviest object within arm's reach, a microscope, and raced right behind Barry; fatigue, shock and fear all forgotten for now. When the corner of her eyes spotted the other member of the cavalry who arrived with Vibe quickly moving passed her, her concentration almost got lost in the motion.

Ralph.

Was it their, Earth 1, Elongated Man?

Gunshots got fired and Jay shouted something, but none of the attacks reached the doctor who managed to swing the microscope with both hands and connect it behind the head of her CSI friend who instantly fell on the floor like a rock. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed she was safe from the bullets that were bouncing off the stretchy hero. Ralph's extended arms wasted no time grabbing the attacking guards, throwing them at each other and forcing them to knock themselves down. At the same time, the unidentified Cisco used his second arm, the one that didn't need anymore to inhibit Barry's powers to throw an incredibly strong burst of vibration at Jay.

The attack threw the senior speedster in the wall where he hit his head against it and slumped back on the floor, an action that closely resembled what Jay did a couple of days earlier to his Earth 1's counterpart.

"How about we go before reinforcement arrived?" Called out Ralph upon hearing running footsteps that were no doubt coming in their direction.

"Won't get arguments from me here," instantly answered Cisco while opening a breach just behind his back. Quickly, he rushed to grab the unconscious Barry Allen and started dragging him toward the breach. Meanwhile, Ralph's arm entangled themselves around Jay's unmoving body and did the same.

"Come on, let's go!" Said Elongated Man to Caitlin who nodded and ran toward the breach right behind Cisco and Barry.

Turning around one last time, before jumping into the portal side by side with Ralph, Caitlin saw more armed-to-the-teeth guards entering the room.

Once reaching the other side, the whole group appeared at Earth 1's S.T.A.R. Labs and found themselves right in the middle of the cortex with Joe waiting for them. Barely after touching down in the cortex, Cisco knees buckled down and his right one hit the floor, hard.

"Cisco!" Shouted both Joe and Ralph in unison as the detective knelt right on front of the young meta and pressed his hand on Vibe's left shoulder, "you're ok?"

"I'm fine; it just took a lot out of me," dismissed Cisco before pushing away the hands and nodding at the unconscious speedsters, "quick, take them to the infirmary and make sure to dampen their powers."

After barely hesitating for a moment, Joe nodded and looked up at Caitlin who was still standing next to them; shaking, exhausted and confused. The doctor's face was filled with an extensive list of questions; what just happened? Was that their Cisco? No, it couldn't be. He was dead. So was Earth 3's Vibe. What was going on?

The detective opened his mouth but stopped his motion when Cisco shook his head and indicated with a subtle head movement that he was going to take care of her.

"Alright. Ralph, help me," said Barry's adoptive dad while complying to the Cisco given directives.

Meanwhile, Cisco got back on his shaky legs and put his hands on Caitlin's shoulders, wanting to reassure her but, instead, earning a step back that broke the physical contact.

"Easy, it's me. It's Cisco," he assured while taking his Vibe glasses off and smiling tenderly.

"No, yo...you….'re de….dead, " stuttered Caitlin, "Barry killed you, I saw it," she added with a stronger and steadier voice.

Taking off the Earth 3 Cisco's vest, Cisco gently shook his head and smiled, "Barry didn't hurt me, I promise. Well, not more than needed-" he added, wincing and putting his right still-wearing gauntlet hand over his heart.

"I don't….Cisco?" Slowly said the doctor, still uncertain.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm ok," added Cisco while opening his arms widely to receive his friend who was seeking comfort, "come here."

Advancing, Caitlin allowed the hero to close his arms around her whole body and gently massage her back with one soothing hand 'til the doctor would stop shaking; "Shhh it's ok, I'm sorry we scared you like that. I promise I'm fine. "

After a long moment, Caitlin gently pushed against the man's chest to regain some distance between them and looked at his face once she was done wiping the relieved tears in her eyes.

"I don't understand; I saw Barry crushed your heart. I couldn't find your pulse."

"Well, Barry took me into Flashtime-" started to recall Cisco.

_23 hours earlier:_

"Barry! Snap out of this! Help us!" Shouted Caitlin as she was getting harshly pushed toward the stairs leading to the observation room.

Not long after their friend disappeared in the stairs, Barry's hand landed on the engineer's shoulder. Instantly, the familiar tickling sensation grew in his fingers as his powers enveloped his friend and allowed Cisco to open his eyes, and blink, at superspeed.

Confusion was all over the engineer's face as he looked around at the frozen environment surrounding him. Was he…?

"We don't have a lot of time; Jay can come back at any second," hurriedly stated Barry, without any introduction, to his best friend he was supposedly about to kill. Or, at least, that's what Cisco thought.

Looking up at the speedster, Cisco frowned in confusion. The softened features and the sweet, yet anxious, face staring back wasn't the expression Cisco had in front of him moments ago. Could it be? It looked like Barry, the real one and the one they haven't seen in days. Daring for one second to look around, risking being caught and killed while he was off guard, not that it would've mattered against a speedster, Cisco examined the frozen people in the observation room. Even from a distance, the hero could tell nobody up there was moving a single muscle.

Everything about this whole situation was eerie familiar. Except for the part where his best friend was possibly about to murder him in cold blood. Was he in Flashtime again? And, more importantly, why?

"Barry?" He asked, hesitantly, before looking back at the man.

A tad annoyed and anxious about the ticking clock, Barry exhaled deeply from his nose before swiftly answering; "Yeah, Cisco, it's me. It's really me."

The tone of Barry's voice, scared and non-threatening, increased Cisco's doubts. It really, truly, sounded like Cisco's friend.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but aren't you supposed to be an evil you by now?"

"Not yet, but I don't know how much longer I can hold it off."

Cisco's mouth opened to say something but was abruptly cut off by the speedster.

"I took you into Flashtime so we could talk. But, we must hurry; your body can't handle moving at that speed for long and if Jay comes back, he'll be able to see us talking. If that happens, then, we're both dead."

Hum, ok. Even for a speedster, Barry sure was in a hurry.

"Weren't you already gonna kill me anyway?" Reiterated Cisco. If Barry was indeed planning to kill him, what was he waiting for? Why act as he cared now?

"I'm still in control, but I don't know how long I'll last," explained Barry, or tried to as his friend was going to need a long more than that.

"I don-"

"I don't have time to explain, I need you to trust me," interrupted Barry, frantically looking around to make sure no one could see what he was going.

Trust him? Under normal circumstances, nothing would be easier. But, now? On the bright side: Barry did sound sincere. Plus, if Flash was lying, Cisco was going to be a dead man in a couple of seconds so, what's was there to lose?

"Alright, I'll bite, what do need from me? Can't you simply speed Caitlin and us out of here?" added Cisco, hoping to get two corrects in a row.

Sadly, this time, Barry negatively shook his head, "I can't; whatever it is they put in my neck prevent me from escaping," concisely explained the hero with his left hand behind his neck.

So much for that plan, looks like the Galway didn't trust the speedster that much just yet. At least, not 'till he proved his words of loyalty.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Inquired Cisco, quickly taking back a grab on himself. There's no way Barry took the chance of getting caught by taking Cisco into Flashtime just to tell him that, oh well, they were doomed.

"I could phase my hand through you," proposed Barry, "it's probably gonna feel weird but it shouldn't hurt."

It sounded like a good plan for about half a second; nobody would be able to tell the difference between Barry crushing the man's heart or just phasing through Cisco's chest. Well, there was one big hole in that plan;

"What about if they wanna verify if I'm alive?" Nervously inquired Cisco.

Faking being dead was one thing, but faking a stopped heart was another one. The way Barry winched and his brow furrowed proved that he hadn't considered that element.

"I could always transfer you the biggest dose of speed force I can gather and speed your heart up so much it's gonna make it feel like it's non-existent for people who aren't a speedster. Then, once you're out, it will be up to you to find a way to come to our rescue," proposed Barry.

"I already have a plan for that part, but I'm going to need time to work on it," commented the engineering before his eyes widened; "wait! Isn't your idea gonna give me a real heart attack?"

Barry shrugged and winced, again, "it's a risk, but if we don't take it we'll both die, so will Caitlin. I won't let you die, I promise."

"Wha….wha…t 'bout Caitl-?" stuttered Cisco with his legs starting to shake under him as the effect of Flashtime on a non-speedster were making themselves known. They were running out of time.

"I'll take care of her and gain some time, just make sure to be there before 24 hours with a good rescue plan. We just need to make it real and give the Galway the show they're expecting."

What were the other options out there? Lousy plan or not, it was the only one they had.

"Alright, go...ooo..ood luck," concluded Cisco.

"Thanks, you too," also wishes Barry before breaking contact and exiting Flashtime. Time to make it look real.

As Cisco was lying still on the ground, moments later, it was hard to keep calm and do nothing while being in the dark about whether the man was playing his part or if his body failed at handling the extra speed force.

Finally gaining 24 hours for himself and Caitlin, and the permission to take Cisco's  _body_  out, Barry didn't waste any more time to execute his instruction. The exact instant the button was pressed, allowing him to run out of there freely, he did. How long has it been since they got out of Flashtime and since the speedster forcefully transferred a way too big dose of Speedforce to his friend? A minute? Two minutes? Was it too long for Cisco? Feeling his pulse racing, even for him, Barry took his friend out in a record-time to the top of the hill overlooking the river and hurriedly put down the engineer on the ground.

Leaving Caitlin in the laboratory was killing the CSI, but if he hadn't done it, he would've sold himself out about his true intentions. His ills muscles were screaming under the effort of running and his brain felt like it was going to explode from a headache; he didn't have much strength and time left. Barry knew he wouldn't have gone far transporting both his friends, especially if Jay was to reappear and give him the chase.

Their only chance was for Barry to free Cisco and wait for Vibe to come back with the cavalry.

"Come on, Cisco, we're out," whispered Barry to his friend when the breacher's body ended up on the wet grass at the top of the hill.

The speedster finally managed to get one of his best friends out; everyone was going to be alright. Or, it should be. Except, no movement was made and no sound came out from the too-still hero on the ground, it wasn't good.

Shaking, thanks to the quickly spreading panic at the thought he might've murdered his best friend for real, Barry dug his fingers into Cisco's neck and, almost instantly, found a beating underneath his fingers. Except, no joy washed over his alarmed mind; the pulse underneath his fingers was way too irregular and way too fast; Cisco was in D-fib and closing getting into heart attack range.

"Come on, don't do this. Stay with me, stay with me, Cisco" repeatedly pleaded Barry.

Remembering the bee events, years earlier, the hero brought electric current in his hands and pushed them on his friend's chest to deliver a shock like a defibrillator. Frenetically, Barry leaned over Cisco to position his ear over his friend's mouth while still pressing his hand against the man's neck.

"Thank god!" he whispered when he finally felt a way more regular beat and, a moment later, Cisco groaning as he was painfully coming back to consciousness, "welcome back man," greeted Barry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hands and do the happy dance if you're happy that Cisco's ok ;) Let me know your thoughts on that in the comment.
> 
> Hope you also enjoyed all the easter eggs from both the show and the last Vibe comics (like Earth 3 Cisco's suit and the trick that was used against the speedsters). If you haven't read the 2013 Vibe comic, I promise everything will be explained with everything else going on in that story over the next couple of chapters. Stay tuned.


	11. Regrouping

_23 hours earlier:_

Cisco's groan sounded like music to Barry ears who feared for an excruciating second, or two, that he killed his best friend. Hard to tell how much of Cisco's stillness from earlier was only acting and how much was because of his heart acting out after the mistreatment.

"You're ok, man, you did great," said Barry who was smiling through his own physical pain.

"Oww," commented Cisco, his left hand going for this chest while Barry was keeping a tight hold on Vibe's opposite one to vibrate through the power dampening wristband. Barely a second later, the wristband easily broke.

Barry knew he should probably hurry to get back before his prolonged absence would become suspicious. Dumping a body in a river shouldn't take this long, especially for a speedster. Maybe Barry was just getting paranoid about the time, but with Caitlin still prisoner and Jay still under the couple's influence, Barry couldn't jeopardize the trust he just earned.

"I'm sorry about that, see you tomorrow," he added as Cisco was blinking his eyes and breathing a couple of times profoundly, confused. One thing was for sure; what was coming next was going to wake him up, fast.

Without waiting for another second, Barry finished his task and rolled his friend off the edge. It was with a heavy heart that he watched Cisco rolling off the hills and all the way to the probably cold water. All Barry could do was cross his fingers that his friend would be able to find his way home and mount a rescue mission.

"Good luck," repeated the speedster before taking off.

_Present:_

"So, I just swam to the shore and breached back here where I was able to get some rest and prepared for the rescue mission," concluded Cisco to put an end to his extensive recap of what truly unfolded in that crucial moment. Or, at least, the parts he actually remembered when he wasn't out.

Understatement of the year to say that the whole part about letting himself get charged with a highly concentrated dose of Speedforce wasn't about to be nominated as the best and safest idea of the decade as Caitlin's eyes widened the second it was mentioned. And, that expression never left her face 'till she could speak up:

"You really let Barry executed that plan?" Asked Caitlin, incredulous, "do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Yeah, I get the picture now," grimaced Cisco with his right hand on his still slightly sore chest.

"Cisco!" Shouted back the doctor, unable to believe how his best friend could take the whole thing so lightly, "I'm serious! You're incredibly lucky to be alive, it was-"

"Believe me; I know how risky it was. I do now," interrupted Cisco, "but it wasn't as dangerous as waiting for Barry to turn on us for good. We had to act, and it was the only available window of opportunity we were going to have."

Maybe he had a point, but still. Rewinding Cisco's sentence in her head, Caitlin stopped in her sermon when the part about waiting for Barry to turn caught her attention. Even after the explanations she received about how Cisco managed to escape, something still sounded off.

"I don't...he tried to strangle me and didn't take me into Flashtime," added Caitlin.

She saw the way Barry looked at her and mistreated her wrists; he wasn't himself. Her exhaustion probably wasn't helping her full comprehension of what unfolded.

"Barry was very anxious about the chances of Jay coming back and catching us, he probably didn't want to risk taking you too, plus he had to make it real. I can't blame him. But, that being said, I'm really sorry about scaring you," explained Cisco to his still confused friend.

"What about this?" She asked while pulling her sleeves up and revealing her badly bruised wrists, "he hurt me."

Cisco grimaced in sympathy, "Barry did say he didn't know how long he would be able to fight it off and stay in control. I guess we took him back just in time. It's over now."

It seemed like forever before the doctor's slow blinking stopped and she started comprehending the situation. Sleep sounded so damn good right now, but there was still so many things she had to know and new crucial information she had to share first, even if the remaining adrenaline in her bloodstream was the only thing keeping her on her two feet.

"What about that  _thing,_ that attack, you did earlier? What did you do to Barry and Jay?" She asked, curious. If Cisco was right and Barry did managed to stay in control, it might explain why he didn't attack, but, what about Jay? These new and weird energy waves had to be legit.

Like a child on Christmas' eve, Cisco's eyes brighten up, and a wide smile spread from ear to ear; "nice new trick, right? I blocked them out of the SpeedForce, thanks to the other Cisco's explanations."

After finishing his sentence, the engineer's smile faded a bit at the mention of his dead doppelganger who sacrificed his life to ensure a rescue team would come to Jay's help.

"Blocked them out?" Carefully repeated Caitlin, unsure she heard it right. Maybe it was just her exhaustion, but her brain was unable to connect the dots and figure out on her own what that was supposed to mean.

Seeing how hard his friend was trying, and failing, at figuring it out, Cisco's explanation moved a few steps back; "you know how I control the energy of the universe that also happens to connect them all, right?"

"Humm...yeah?"

"And the SpeedForce is, technically, another universe that just happens to have his own sets of rules where time and space don't exist?"

Caitlin nodded; she was following so far. Well, sort of, even if she was still struggling to see where the engineer was going.

"Well, I managed to block any energy transfer coming from or going to the Speedforce universe, an external world. Since speedsters get the vast majority of their powers from there, except for the part they generate while running, when I blocked the transfer of energy, both Jay and Barry found themselves stuck at normal speed. The shock value and element of surprise were also a plus," finished explaining Cisco. The man was clearly proud of himself.

But, hey, let's be honest, who wouldn't be in his position? Cutting the grass right under the speedster's feet wasn't a small achievement.

"When did you learn how to do this?" Questioned Caitlin who was still trying to catch on.

"My doppelgänger tried to describe me how to do it when he requested to be alone with me. That's why he asked everyone to leave; he didn't want Barry to know about it just in case he would suffer the same fate than Jay. I tried to neutralize Jay when we first got attacked by him, but I failed, bad. It took me a bit a practice."

Everything was making sense. It sure explained everything; why Vibe didn't fire at Jay when they first got captured, the stunt the engineer did with Barry to escape and now, taking his friends out for the count.

"So…that's what you've been doing for the past day? Training?"

Cisco nodded, "yup, that and sleeping it off a little. Something you need to do now," he proposed, but the doctor had other thoughts in mind after looking up at the door of the med bay where she could see a little bit of the two unconscious men.

But, before that, there was still one, or two, questions unanswered; "But, wait, if Barry wasn't really under the Galway's control, why take him down too? And, why wear the suit of their Earth's Vibe?"

Cisco grimaced: "I didn't really have time to verify if he was still controlling his actions, a full day after I left. I figured it would be better to act and ask questions later. Plus, this way the Galway don't know Barry had been playing them and that I'm alive, which could always come in handy later on when we'll go take them down once and for all."

"So, it'….ov…'r. Y'u...ou...k'" Suddenly started stuttering Caitlin with shaking lips and unsteady balance. The adrenaline that forced her to stay awake for so long and fight her way out was running low and leaving her drained.

Reflexed kicked in for the breacher who grabbed his friend's arm and helped her stay up, for the moment at least.

"Yeah, I'm good, I'm ok," assured Cisco, "let's go lie you down before you crash."

About to pass out or not, the doctor still shook her head negatively;

"No…Barry…Jay-" she said while pulling against the hand on her arm to free herself and walk toward the medbay where Joe and Ralph were finishing securing both unconscious men on a medical bed. When Caitlin succeeded in breaking away from the engineer's physical contact, Cisco sighed and decided to follow closely.

Vibe winced when he entered the room and caught a quick glimpse at his unconscious best friend. The way Barry's closed eyes were facing the opposite wall allowed the engineer to see the dry blood behind the speedster's head where Caitlin violently hit him with a microscope. That had to hurt; good thing Barry was too unconscious to feel it right now.

"I….I…need get….t'em rehydrated…'eeds blood sample...nourishments, take samples...And….an-" continued Caitlin while her feverish hands opened the closest medicine cabinet and started taking out many IV bags, almost dropping two of the first three she took out. Cisco's quick reflexes were the only reason why they didn't fall all the way to the ground.

As the breacher was catching up the IV bag, Caitlin hurriedly took out the test tubes and samples in the Galway's lab before leaving Earth 3.

"Let me help you," gently offered the engineer who had been Caitlin's assistant in taking care of this team for the past years. Sure, he was no doctor and couldn't diagnosed a thing even if his life was at stake, but during the nine months in which the speedster was in a coma, Cisco picked up a thing or two along the way.

Plus, let's not forget the countless time the hero found himself in a medical bed during his time as Central City's own Scarlet Speedster. If Caitlin could just hang in there for an extra moment and tell him what to do, Cisco could take it from here.

Except, the second the man's attention was wholly directed toward the IV bags on the desk to prepare, mentally, what he could do to assist, Caitlin's knee buckled, her eyes rolled in their socket and gravity claimed control of her body.

"Caitlin!" Suddenly shouted Joe who surged from between the two medical bed to catch the woman right before her head could crack itself on the ground while being assisted by Cisco's right hand that grabbed the doctor's arm at the last moment. That was a close one.

Caitlin had fought too hard and for too long. As she surrendered to unconsciousness, she left the care of the speedsters, and herself, between the hands of Joe, Cisco, Ralph, and Iris. So much for assisting Caitlin who didn't even get the chances to leave any instructions behind before passing. Life wasn't about to start going easy on the team anytime soon.

After managing to find one extra stretcher, the team put it in the SpeedLab as the Medbay was already pretty crowded and it was probably preferable to let her sleep in a quieter place for a couple of hours.

In the following moments, deprive of the doctor's precious help, Cisco did what he could to ensure the comfort of the unconscious heroes and keep an eye on their vitals. He might not have extended medical knowledge, but at least he knew what wires to connect and how to have the vitals of both men on display on the computers.

Oh man, Cisco sure wished he didn't have to open the suit to place the sensors on the skin because the second he parted the fabric of Barry's red suit, Vibe almost puked. The ugly rashes and scabs on his face were also all over his torso. Some of them were filled with white and greenish pus underneath the skin, and there were others, close to Barry's neck, that were turning into shades of black. It wasn't good. Not at all. No need to be Dr. House to know that and the disgusted, yet filled with anguish, features all over Joe's face were reflecting Cisco's expression.

When Barry's vitals first displayed on the monitors, the men's concern only grew higher at the sight of his 103 F (39,4 C) fever and the too sluggish heartbeat. On the other hand, Jay's pulse was also a tad slow and he also had a temperature of 101 F (38,3C), but it was nothing like Barry's. Thankfully, even the Earth 3 hero reddish skin and torso barely had a couple of rashes and scabs on it and none of them looked infected. It wasn't too bad.

If only they had a real doctor in the room who knew exactly what to do. That would surely make everyone breath a lot easier. Except, even if Caitlin were awake, she would be no good to them in her completely worn up state. At this instant, they could only hope that rest was going to improve the heroes' condition.

"You should go take a nap, it's gonna be a long, long night," whispered Cisco, hours later, to Joe who was stubbornly refusing to leave his foster son's side, just like Iris who had fallen asleep on a chair next to the bed. She wasn't going to leave this lab until her husband would be back on his feet.

"I'm fine; I had enough sleep in the last couple of days. You're the one who got captured," dismissed Joe who made himself clear about his intention to stay by Barry's side while not-so-subtly suppressing another yawn and turning his head back to look at his son in a weak attempt to hide his fatigue.

Joe had enough hours sleep? Yeah, right. When, yesterday, Cisco was the one passed out in bed med, he probably managed to get more sleep in that night that the Detective had in the last three or four days combined. No need to be a psychic to guess Joe probably hadn't managed to sleep well since the team left on the rescue mission. At the moment, Ralph was the only one taking a real nap in a real bed, two levels down.

Turning his chair around, Cisco took another look at his ill friend shifting around and whimpering again in his uneasy and restless sleep; a real contrast compares to Jay who was silently recuperating.

"We're gonna need to take turns watching over them," started Cisco while wondering just how worse Barry could get.

A short beeping sound partly answered his question; the computers alerted the people around of the new change of temperature for one of the two patient. Barry's fever had risen again. In comparison, Jay's temperature had fallen by a full degree; the senior speedster was improving and the young hero wasn't. They missed something.

With his anguish reaching a new peak, Joe anxiously scrubbed his beard: "we can't let this go any worse."

Pushing off the sleeve of his letterman jacket that was hiding his watch, as the breacher had taken off the dead man's clothes, Cisco took a quick look at that time. At the moment, it's was little before 1 am, meaning Caitlin had been out for a little less than five hours. That will have to do.

"No, we can't," agreed Cisco before jumping on his feet and causing the chair to collide against the desk.

His action caused Barry's wife to jostle awake and direct her attention toward the burning hot Scarlet Speedster who grunted again.

"What goi-" started to ask Iris, but Cisco dashed out of hearing range before the sentence was complete and ran toward the speed lab.

The speed lab's door swiftly opened and the engineer approached his friend's side who was still profoundly out for the count. Regretting his action before even doing it, Cisco sharply grabbed the metahuman's shoulders and shook them hard. Why was life so intent on keeping this team from relaxing and resting?

They had taken the woman out of her dirty and smelly clothes and changed her into S.T.A.R. sweater and sweatpants; she looked so comfy and comfortable. Bringing the doctor out of her state was cruel, but they couldn't afford to wait another four or five extra hours, or possibly more.

"Cait?" Asked the engineer again.

Getting no answer, Cisco shook her harder. She really was in an incredibly deep sleep, "come on, girl."

If that weren't going to work, slapping would probably need to come next. That or maybe grabbing some salt from the fridge. Either way, they needed her help and needed it fast. Thankfully, Cisco wouldn't need to resort to these methods as the woman's eyes opened up abruptly.

It was gasping and swinging herself into a seated position, disoriented and panicked, that Caitlin came back to him. Adrenaline came back rushing as fast as it left, hours earlier, as the doctor glance darted around, looking any sort of imminent danger probably looming around.

"What's-"

"Barry's getting worse, we need your help" quickly explained Cisco to the panicked eyes which finally found his face and recognized his surrounding enough to calm down. Resting wasn't going to be for today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know your thoughts in the comments, really gonna need all the support for the second part of the story.
> 
> Right now I'm losing my motivation and falling behind in the writing schedule. I'm gonna take a writing break after next week's chapter. Do you really want me to keep publishing chapters here?
> 
> Sorry for breaking the action, the next couple of chapters will be smoother as I'll give you answers to most of your questions about what's going on. I promise the action is coming back soon and the heroes aren't planning to let the Galway get away with what they did.


	12. Never-ending cycle

There were smoother ways to come back to the world of the living then hearing these words straight out of the gates,  _Barry's getting worse, we need your help_.

When the words registered into Caitlin's mind after a few seconds of confusion while looking down at her new clothes, her eyes widened again, "what time is it? How long was I out?"

Pushing aside a lock of long black hair, Cisco's reflexes kicked in faster than his mind, and he glanced once more at his watch before he could remember he just did that moments ago, "you've been out for a bit less than five hours, I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Damn it," cursed Catlin under her breath before swiftly taking the sheet from over her body and forcing her still tired body back in action, "have to get to work."

Five hours sleep will have to do for now, and it wasn't bad considering how this was the longest and most recuperating night she had since defeating Devoe. A short rest in a bed would always beat sharing a tight metallic cage for days.

"From what I can tell, Jay seems to be getting better, slowly, but Barry's fever just keeps climbing, and I don't know what to do," explained the engineer, succinctly to the doctor who was putting herself up and biting her lips at the news.

If she was right about what she found out on Earth 3, there wasn't any second to waste; she had to get to Barry right away and finish her tests.

Caitlin stumbled the instant her feet touched the ground, but she managed to regain her balance and started walking so fast toward the medbay that Cisco was having trouble catching up without breaking into a jog. The doctor was in quite the hurry. During the whole walk toward the medical room, Cisco could hear his friend talking to herself as she was mentally cataloguing all the tests she would need to perform and the cares she would have to provide.

"You should've woken me up sooner. I just hope it's not too late," said Caitlin, adding that second part to no one particular as she passed next to Iris and Joe who were both standing next to the entrance.

The doctor's clammy hands, caused by her sudden rising fear at the thought of how much her friend could've worsened while she was out, quickly opened up the same medicine cabinet she was searching inside earlier before passing out. Swiftly, she started carefully, yet frantically, selecting the IV bags she would be needed before attaching her hair in a ponytail. Thanks to her much-needed nap, her mind on high alert was now able to connect all the dots between her last day's researches and Cisco's explanation about what unfolded at the lab.

Grabbing the closest lab coat she could find, Caitlin put on some gloves and turned around to take a look at her patient.

Her frown deepened when she spotted the awful state Barry was in at the moment, "if Barry had been strong enough to stay in control 'til now, I'm not sure how long he'll stay alive," she commented to herself before biting her lips in deep concern and taking one quick look at the displayed vitals. Jay could wait a bit; Barry couldn't.

Confused looks got shared between the rest of the team still present, and conscious, in the room who heard her remark and murmurs of worry spread across the room. What was that supposed to mean?

"I don't understand a word you're saying," Joe commented for the rest of them while anxiously looking at the hero he loved like a son. The thought of losing him was crushing his heart and squeezing his airpipe. If he couldn't control his emotions, he wouldn't be able to keep his composure for very long.

"Isn't it a good thing that Barry's strong and fighting?" Added Iris, "I mea-"

"I wish I knew when he received the last dose," commented Caitlin to herself as she was barely listening to the team's comments and was clearly uncaring about the fact she had just interrupted them, "how high was his temperature when he arrived?" She inquired while walking next to her patient with an empty syringe and inserting it under the skin to extract a new blood sample for herself.

"103 degrees," indicated Cisco, causing his friend to curse under her breath, again. It was, indeed, getting higher.

"He shouldn't be getting worse unless we're already too late," commented Caitlin with contagious anguish all over her words that spread panic even more amongst the people surrounding her. Devoured by concern, Joe could feel his hair greying a little more by the second.

"Just help me undressed him so I can examine him fully," added Caitlin while already going for the top of the suit.

Rushing forward to help, Joe and Iris put themselves to the task to get the man out of his thigh and constricting red pants. Meanwhile, Cisco rushed on his best friend's left side to untie his wrist from the bed but leaving the power dampening cuffs off, just in case. It would be easier that way to manipulate the poisoned speedster. Ignoring Barry's additional grunts of pain caused by his friends and family moving him around, Cisco managed to free the hero's left arm from the suit and stood back to allow the doctor to do the same on the other side.

The instant Caitlin and Cisco lifted their friend's upper body to ease pulling the suit from underneath him, and Caitlin's eyes laid on the shirtless' right side of the sick heroes, she froze. The doctor's lips parted and her eyes widened in horror.

"Oh my God. Those monsters..." she whispered in shock, "Cisco, get the scan ready now!" Firmly instructed Caitlin who was clearly struggling to keep her hands from shaking, a little motion that wasn't lost on her friends whose worried reached new highs.

Striding fast, the Vibe moved to get around the bed in mere seconds to take a look too at whatever was terrifying the experimented physician, expecting a pretty gruesome injury. But instead, the breacher only found a round shaped bump.

"What's that?"

"Cisco, get the body scan ready," repeated Caitlin, snapping, "NOW!"

Cisco flinched at the tone. Oh, something wasn't right, no doubt. Not that anyone in the room hadn't already realized that thanks to the previous clues.

"I promise I'll explain everything in detail after that's done, but just do what I say," added Caitlin in a smoother tone.

Nodding his understanding, Cisco swiftly took a hold of himself, "on it!"

Seeing he was finally carrying her instructions, Caitlin turned around to look at Joe and Iris, "take off the top part of Jay's suit, too. I want to make sure he's clean," she requested. There was going to take a lot of explaining to do later on.

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

In the next half an hour or so, the team took scans and blood samples of both their ill friends who were now sleeping with countless sensors connected to their body and head, a finger clip sensor and IV bags bringing them their much needed, Barry had an oxygen mask over his mouth to help him breathe normally. Thank God for Caitlin being there and awoken to attend their needs, nobody could do half her job.

Now, the doctor was working on analysing of the new blood samples and comparing them to the ones she managed to get on Earth 3 while taking a couple of big bites in the ham sandwich Iris brought to replenish her lost energy. Putting down her lunch, the doctor wiped away the small pieces of food off the corner of her mouth with her sleeve and turned her chair around to orient it toward the second computer that was displaying the scans she just took of both men. Might as well study them while the last analysis was currently underway to test the effect of different elements introduced into drops of blood to try and see how the serum was reacting. It was going to take a few moments before she could quantify the effects of her last attempt to combat the serum.

Quick consecutive gasps escaped Barry's lips and made the doctor turn around, unconsciously grabbing her armchair at the sight of her suffering friend moving his head from right to left and back in feeble attempts to escape his discomfort. Drops of sweats were beading on his forehead despite the fact the man was only wearing boxers and was under the thinnest sheet possible. The medicine still dripping from the IV and into his body wasn't doing a thing to bring his fever down.

"Hang in there, Barry," whispered Caitlin before turning around and going back to her work and meal. There wasn't much she could do right now to help; she had to keep working on a cure and the upcoming surgery.

Meanwhile, in the cortex, the rest of the team was anxiously waiting for news. Iris, Joe, and Ralph were all standing in the room while Cisco was sitting behind the computer; all of them desperately needed to know what was going on. Unable to stay still, the engineer wouldn't stop turning his chair around on itself, again and again, before doing the same thing in the opposite side. For an instant, Ralph looked like he was tempted to do the same considering how it would distract him from looking up at the med bay every few seconds or so. Every new moment without any sign that the doctor was coming out to meet them was becoming unendurable.

It was frustrating to be superheroes and yet unable to do a thing to help. All they could do right now was wait 'til they had a real diagnostic on what the speedsters endured in that facility and what now laid under Barry's skin. And, probably, even after that, they would still be helpless and depend on Caitlin's expertise.

"What do you think that was underneath? Tumour?" Worriedly inquired Iris who found herself unable to stand anymore the uncomfortable silence that had been filling the room for most of the waiting. Her arms were tightly crossed against her chest and her fingers wouldn't stop nervously fingering the opposite arm on which they were resting.

"One that grew in a couple of days? I don't think so," dismissed Cisco, stopping his chair from turning and shaking his head, "plus, I've felt the lump and it wasn't soft; it was hard like something metallic."

"What have they done to my son?" Joe growled, he was barely controlling the rage tremors in his body. These monsters were going to pay.

In fact, the detective's right hand was clenching and repeatedly opening on his side. If the Galways were in the room right now, no doubt that this same hand would either go for the punch or the gun in a heartbeat. The motion didn't go unnoticed by the other people in the cortex, but none had the time to answer before the med bay door finally opened up just enough to let pass the doctor.

All movement and chatting stopped the instant Caitlin walked in the room carrying her tablet and looking grim. The way the doctor was biting her lips while positioning herself between the computers and the back of the room, not too far from the three up-right people, wasn't a good sign. Carefully getting back up, Cisco approached the group at the same time his friend swiped her tablet a few times and touched the features that allowed all the screens placed all over the cortex to display what was on her electronic device. Iris's gasp at the sight of what was in front of her eyes was unequivocal.

All the screens were now displaying four scans taken from different angles of someone's abdomen, Barry's belly based on the patient's name at the top of the images. Just like they all expected, underneath the skin, the team's glances found a round device on the scans.

The confirmation of the team's theories didn't make any happy; it was one of these times they were desperately hoping to be proven wrong. Feeling his blood boiling with rage, even more than before, Joe clenched his hands even tighter.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Ralph for the rest of them.

"If these monsters were-" started the detective, only to get interrupted by Caitlin who finally decided to speak up.

"That," tiredly answered Caitlin while looking directly at the screen to avoid making eye contact with the people in the room as she knew it would probably break her professional wall repressing her emotions, "is the reservoir and mechanic of a drug pump…"

"What does it do?" Asked Cisco, interrupting his friend's explanation in the process, not that he really needed to do it as the doctor was, no doubt, about to fill the blank.

"It's usually a way to deliver a regulated amount of substance, usually pain medication, straight to the patient's spine with the attached catheter," explained the doctor as she moved closer to the back of the room, "it's usually given to relieve people with excruciating condition, like cancer for example."

One by one, helped by Caitlin's pointing finger, members of team Flash found the small white line on the scan connecting the metallic device to Barry's spine.

The sight of it had Joe's anger rose even higher, if that was even possible at that point, "this thing isn't easing his discomfort, isn't it?" He guessed out. No need to be a detective to figure that one out. Definitely a good thing the Galways weren't in the lab because Joe didn't even want to think about what he would be tempted to do, the thoughts roaming his mind at this instant weren't lovely.

"Probably not," confirmed Caitlin, "I haven't been able to take a sample yet from inside the tank, but I'm willing to bet it's the same serum that what has been given to Jay."

Guessing what the next interrogation would be about, the doctor swiped twice on her tablet and changed what was appearing on the screen. This time, Jay's name was displayed at the top and over the new scans. As far as none-doctor could tell, it seemed clean. Everything looked normal.

"So, one less problem to worry about?" Said Ralph, reaching the same conclusion as everyone else in the room.

'Yeah, there's no drug pump inside Jay's body," confirmed Caitlin, receiving relieved nods, "but…" she trailed.

Oh, of course, there was a but.

"We have another problem," added Caitlin while swiping back once on her electric device to present to the group an extra scan from someone's neck and skull. With only one glance, the team quickly spotted a little something that didn't belong in a human's body, "there's also some sort of chip inside Barry's neck."

Exhaling deeply from his nose, Cisco closed his eyes for a second, "that's what Barry tried to tell me; he told me something in his neck was preventing him from taking off. I wouldn't be surprised if Polly's remote could shock him if he didn't obey."

Ralph and Caitlin nodded simultaneously to express their agreement with that theory.

"Is it dangerous now?" Inquired Iris, frowning and advancing closer to the screens to try and get a better look at it while squinting her eyes.

"It appears to be dormant as it's not giving off any kind of discharge at the moment. It probably needs to be activated by the remote or by passing the parameters without the right adjustments, if I were to guess," explained Caitlin before turning toward the team, "we will get the chips out of Barry and Jay, but the priority needs to be getting that pump out of Barry first."

Yup, both speedsters had this chip inside of them.

"Is that pump the reason why Barry's so much sicker than Jay?" Asked Joe as the still-opened door between the cortex and the medical bay was letting pass more whimpers from the youngest of the heroes.

Sighing, the doctor put back her attention toward her tablet where she tapped a few commands and swiped a couple of times before showing to the rest of the team the next part of her presentation. This time, it was displaying three animated blood sample with two at the bottom, taking a quarter of the screen's space each, and a third one at the top and in the middle.

"Oh my god," whispered Iris who suddenly uncrossed her arms

"The samples at the bottom come from both of them yesterday, on Earth 3, with Barry at the left side and Jay on the right," said Caitlin.

"And the one at the top?" Asked Cisco.

"That's from your… the other Cisco," answered Caitlin, glancing over her shoulder to take another look at her presentation.

The top sample was displaying the same visual she showed Barry right before they left for Earth 3: a couple of long and weird shaped organisms attacking various types of cells while white cells were replicating to chase the unknown virus.

Under it, on the right, the same thing was happening. Except, the mysterious virus was way more present in Jay's sample than in Cisco's doppelganger. There was at least two, if not three, times more weird shaped organisms in the blood and just as many white cells.

Except, the one sample that had everyone's attention and the one that caused Iris's exclamation was the third one, the one representing Barry's blood. The square was filled entirely by countless cells and virus, and it was making it hard to tell which was which. But, one thing for sure, the virus was in a way higher proportion compared to the others organisms than it was in the other samples. Even more worrisome, when the next slide appeared, the representation of this new sample looked even worse.

"That's from earlier today," explained Caitlin.

"Why is he getting so much worse? What's wrong?" Inquired Iris who was struggling the keep control on her voice.

"If it's all because of the same virus, why isn't it affecting the three of them in the same way?" Asked Ralph, frowning and getting his hands out of his pockets.

Lowering her head just a tad, Caitlin passed her hand over her mouth and cheek while figuring out the right words. She needed to share what she found out in the Galway's lab.

"It's... it's the Speed-force. The serum is feeding on the Speed-force; the stronger the virus grows, the more active the Speed-force gets and the more violently the boosted immune system fight back to beat the intruder, which only-" started to explain Caitlin, only to get interrupted once again.

"-feeds the virus a little more," Completed Iris with a shiver passing in her spine.

"Yeah," Caitlin sadly confirmed, "and a stronger virus only lead to an even stronger reaction from the body. Right now, this never-ending and escalating cycle is killing Barry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know your thoughts about all the information I finally gave you. Were you expecting this? Did you expect the Galways to be monsters enough to put that drug pump? Still a couple of extra information to give in the next chapter, but you can expect the story to slowly start building back toward the next offensive in the following chapter.
> 
> With my lost of motivation and a wounded shoulder that kept me away from the keyboard, I haven't done much writing in a while, so the next chapter won't arrive 'til November 23rd (in two weeks). I hope you guys will be there when I'll come back :)


	13. The idea

_This never-ending and escalating cycle is killing Barry._

The speedster's condition wasn't improving, they all knew that. But the confirmation sent a cold sensation all over the room that spread in all of their heart. It just felt so unreal to hear these words out loud like that.

"So, that's why it didn't affect my doppelganger," understood Cisco, breaking the heavy silence with his comment and earning himself another nod of approval from the doctor.

"But, what about Jay? He's a speedster and he's getting better," Joe tried, hanging out to every single bit of hope he could find. If one of the sick heroes could get better with a little rest, so could Barry.

Hating to be the bearer of bad news, Caitlin passed her hands in her hair and slightly shook her head, "I'm not sure why that is, but Barry does seem to have a higher concentration of Speed-force in his cells which is why he has been able to fight it off for so long. Except, this is also the main factor that caused the serum to grow exponentially more dangerous. You see, when the serum won and managed to affect Jay's brain, his immune system cut the fighting force in half, which paradoxically also reduced the virus's strength," she tried to explain the best she could.

"Wouldn't that make the serum ineffective on a long period?' Asked Ralph who was still trying to understand everything.

"If they did to him the same than for Barry when we first got captured, the Galways probably gave him a daily dose," recalled Cisco.

"And now that he doesn't have any more doses, he's getting better," completed Caitlin, "I'm expecting Jay's system to start flushing it all out in the next couple of days at most."

"When can we expect him to wake up and, more importantly, start seeing things clearly again?" Asked Cisco to his friend who shrugged and sold out her uncertainty.

"Hard to tell, could take a few hours or a few days."

"So-" started Joe before taking a couple of steps forward to pass Caitlin and approach the back of the room, "if we take the pump out, my son will start improving too, right?"

If only it were that simple. Once again, the doctor found herself oblige to sigh and to break everyone's dream with that one action, "the serum has grown incredibly strong and is affecting his whole body; just stopping the source won't be enough. But it is the first crucial step to heal him. The second one will be to synthesize an antidote to weaken the serum just enough so that Barry system can flush it out."

Determined, Joe turned around once more to face her, "when can you get that pump out?"

"I started working on my plan for the delicate operation already, so as soon as we're done here, I'm going ahead with the procedure. The sooner we can do that, the higher Barry's chances of survival are going to be. Every moment counts now," said Caitlin before adding, more softly, "I'll do everything I can, I won't let him slip through my fingers."

Walking past the doctor again, toward the main desk this time, Joe ran his hand in his hair while looking around for a chair as his exhausted body was running low on energy, "I know you are, I'm sorry."

Smiling softly and sympathizing, Caitlin approached him and gently laid her hand on his arm, "there's nothing you can do right now, except resting. You both need it," she said looking at both the detective and his daughter who looked just as ready to crash you as Joe did.

"But-" wanted to protest Iris.

"There's no but. Go home, get a change of clothes and a nap. Me, Cisco and Ralph can take care of everything here for the moment. Chances are that neither speedsters will wake up for a while. The only thing you guys can do right now to help is coming back in the morning with coffee and breakfast for everyone, alright?" She gently requested.

She was right and everyone in the room knew it, but it didn't mean the West had to like it. Despite his body begging for his stubborn mind to yield, Joe just stubbornly shook his head.

"You just said the situation was killing him; I can't go if he-"

"I said that the status quo was killing him," clarified Caitlin, letting go of the man's arm, "but I'm not planning to sit around and do nothing. Before you are back, the pump will be out of Barry which should help stabilize him for the first half of the day while I finalize synthesizing a cure."

"Worst-case scenario, I'll breach you back here in an instant," assured Cisco to both the Detective and his best friend's wife.

"I'll go home get us some fresh clothes," intervened Iris as her dad's mouth opened again to protest even more, "then we can shower and rest here, downstairs," she compromised which earned her an approving nod from her father. That was as good as a concession as Caitlin would get.

"You still have to buy breakfast and coffee," said Cisco on a forced cheerful tone as he was trying to lighten up their dire situation just a tad. They had a lot of jobs to do, but they were going to succeed. Failing wasn't an option.

As the city and the vast majority of his citizens were still sleeping soundly thinking they were safe from all threats as the Thinker was now gone, Team Flash was working overtime to save the Scarlet Speedster. How could the population know that, inside the peaceful looking S.T.A.R. Labs, their hero was too weak to open his heavy eyelids? All Barry could do right now was lay there and rely on his friends for his every need.

A full hour after exposing the whole situation to the team, a little past two am, Caitlin was finally ready to go ahead and operate. The continuous whimpers of pain and the metallic sound of medical instruments being moved around in the room in preparation of the upcoming procedure were the only sounds in the room. The medical bay was presently occupied by the still shirtless and shivering speedsters and his two friends now wearing operation scrubs, all the way to the medical mask hanging down their neck and the hair net. The only thing missing was the gloves sitting on the desk and ready to be added. To make as much space as possible in the limited area, Jay had been moved to their smaller and old medical room and was under the scrutinous watch of the Elongated Man. So far, everything was under control.

The new and eerie complete silence that suddenly surrounded the bed and replaced the unceasing groans of pain had Cisco frowning and caused him to approach a bit closer.

"Cait?" He called out, a bit louder than needed to his doctor friend who was only a couple of feet away with her back turned on him, "I think he's waking up."

If the engineer calling her out caused Caitlin's attention to drift slightly behind her while continuing cataloguing her instruments to ensure she had everything in her reach, it was the last part of Cisco's sentence that made her swiftly turn around. By the time she strode the last couple of steps separating her from the bed, on the other side from where Cisco was standing, heavy eyelids were struggling to open. Quite the timing as they were just about to get started.

"Barry? Can you hear me?" She gently inquired with her hand going for the speedsters' arm that was still wearing a power dampening bracelet.

After a few seconds where the only visual signs they had that Barry was coming out of unconsciousness were the moving eyelids, both people standing up looked at each other and started simultaneously wondering if the hero was indeed awakening. A new groan and a head movement to the right, where Caitlin was standing, prove them differently.

"Barry?" She asked again, "are you with us?"

"Happening?" Rasped the familiar's voice before a shiver took over the hero's burning hot body.

"You're back on Earth 1, you're going to be okay," said Caitlin over the sigh Cisco was unable to keep in. Sure, his friend was still in terrible shape, but at this point, they weren't expecting him to reach any point of awareness for a long time.

The answer caused Barry to try harder and finally succeed, halfway, in opening his eyes and meeting the doctor's glance. While the speedster's green eyes had no trace of hate or anger in them, they were sure filled with agony, a lot of it. A very thin sheet was still covering him up to the waist while ice pack was now strategically placed under his armpits, on his forehead and against his neck.

"C-c-c-o-l…" he shivered between his teeth before struggling to swallow. Unable to finish his sentence, he tried to moisturize his dried and cracked lips with his tongue.

"That's because you have a high fever; we're trying to keep it under control," answered Caitlin while looking up at the monitors.

During the past hour, Caitlin finished the first version of her own serum designed to counter the Galway's virus and gave it to both speedsters to see the result. Thanks to this and all the other measures taken, Barry's fever had gone down by a full degree and went back to the point he was when he came back. That still was a dangerously high fever, but seeing it coming down was still a good sign.

Now that they were about to start with the operation, they might as well take the ice pack away.

"Here, wait," said Caitlin before indicating for Cisco to take them off while letting go of Barry's arm and turning her back on him. A few seconds later, she came back with a couple of ice chips.

"Better?" She asked once the speedster had managed to moisturize his lips and throat a bit.

"Thanks," he mouthed, gratefully.

"How are you feeling? No desire to kill us at the moment?" Inquired Cisco, earning a head shake.

"I'm good, for now," weakly rasped Barry before turning toward Caitlin, "why?"

Why was what? Why was he getting so sick or weak? Or, why was he still in control? The hero's question was probably directed toward these two subjects, so the doctor did her best to succinctly resume the situation;

"For some reason, you have a lot more Speed-force in your system than Jay does, which-"

The instant she started mentioning the other speedster, she saw the concern in the feverish eyes rising exponentially as the sick hero suddenly remembered the whole reason why he was in that position in the first place.

"We got him back," added Cisco in the middle of the pause Caitlin took at the sight of the rising panic of their patient, "he's recuperating in the other room."

"And he's way, way better shape than you are. You shouldn't worry about him," completed Caitlin, fully aware that telling Barry not to worry about the fate of one of his friends was like asking a starving tiger to wait before jumping on the raw piece of meat placed in front of him.

"As I was saying," she continued, "you have more Speed-force in your system than him. This gives your system the strength to fight to stay in control, except the virus is feeding off your Speed-force. So, the more your body is fighting against what the Galway gave you, the stronger it becomes and the worse you're getting."

Blinking a few times, Barry's mind slowly registered the information he received. When his head lowered a bit, his lips parted in a mixture of disgust and guilt at the sight of what was coming out from under Caitlin's medical scrub; her bruised wrist.

"I tried to stay in control, but I felt these urges... I'm sorry for hurting you. I lost it for a moment," badly apologized Barry with his weak voice.

Seeing the source of the man's mental pain, Caitlin quickly hid her bruises back under the sleeve, "don't worry about it; I know it wasn't your fault and I know you fought hard."

And now, your stubbornness might cost us, she thought to herself when the terrifying idea of losing her friend crossed her mind for an instant. Her sudden silence was just long enough for Barry's eyes to drift off, up and down, on Caitlin's attire. Turning his head on the other side, he got a better glimpse at Cisco's clothes, also registering them for the first time;

"What are you gonna do? Wh't… 'ppening?" Asked Barry, suddenly shivering again, but this time it wasn't from his high fever. This time, it was caused by uncontrollable fear. Despite the logical part of his brain reassuring him and telling him he was safe and back home, Barry couldn't stop the sudden flashback he got when he finally spotted the table full of medical instruments; ghost pain spread in his neck from his time under the Galway's butcher hands.

"Barry?" Asked Caitlin when she saw the dread passing in his face.

"Cait," answered Cisco instead, comprehending what was happening and pointing at the medical table behind the doctor.

Rage charged back inside the brunette's mind at the sudden mental image of Barry being harshly carved against his will in the dark basement. Based on the memory she had of her friend's scream back there, she did not doubt that Barry didn't receive the benefit of anaesthesia. It was no wonder he wasn't thrilled about the idea of being opened up again.

"The Galways put a chip in your neck and a tank probably filled with the same serum that's making you sick; we have to take it out before it kills you."

Barry's confused eyes looked down at his body and his hands went straight to the lump on his side. Apparently, he knew where it was. Well, to be fair, it was hard to miss. Based on his expression, he just didn't know what it was.

"No, it's not coming out," he surprisingly responded with his hands protectively placed in a cross over the emplacement of the pump.

Confused and mildly shocked, Caitlin froze and allowed Cisco to speak up on the other side:

"It's okay, man, it's just Caitlin. We're not gonna hurt you, we just want to make you better," he gently said on the same tone he would use to talk to a scared child.

"No, not yet," rasped Barry. Letting go of the lump with one hand, he pushed against the bed and tried to prompt himself in a partially seated position, "gotta get to her. Is she here? Did you save her?"

"Who's her?" Asked both friends in unison, looking at each other for an instant before jumping into action to help Barry get into a more comfortable position.

"I don't know, the Galways never said her name. I just know they've been keeping another girl captive, possibly another speedster, and they're going to use her for their plans. I need to get back out there."

His sentence wasn't even finished that Barry was already trying, struggling, and badly falling at freeing his uncoordinated limbs from the sheet. His movements easily got stopped by both scientists on each side of him.

"Barry even if I wanted to let you go-" started Caitlin who clearly didn't want to, "in your condition, you won't end up very far. You'll collapse midway before even getting there," she argued back, trying to resonate with the stubborn man, "the device in your side is killing you. I need to get it out now."

"And, buddy, even if you do manage to get there, are you sure you won't lose control?" Cisco swiftly added, "just slow down and let's talk about this. Tell us what you know about the Galways and we'll figure it out, as a team. You're not alone in this."

Exhaling deeply, from both his irritation at his friend's resistance and the painful pressure he exerted on his scabs, Barry forced himself to calm them a tad and allowed his friends to help him get into a more seated position with pillows behind his back. His friends were right; right now, he depended on their help to sit and was too sick to control his own damn body temperature. He was in no state to fight his enemies.

It was shivering again, and thankfully nodding at Caitlin for bringing the sheet back up to his thigh, that he spoke up again, "I don't know that much, honestly. But from what I've heard and understood, in this new timeline where Polly wasn't murdered, she helped take her husband's work to the next level with her associate, Chris Vlama."

"What work? Brainwashing?" Guessed Cisco, almost sarcastically, but surprisingly earning a nod. Oh, okay.

"I believe they wanted to find a way to influence any Meta. I think affecting only speedsters was accidental. Not sure how much further they got, but Vlama stole all the data and their common findings and is making a ton of money continuing the work with the army. Polly wants to steal everything back, including the new data, to control all Metas and get vengeance while she's at it."

"Let me take another wild guess; thanks to the army's support, the laboratory is too well guarded, even against Metas?" Tried Cisco, again, getting two correct guesses in a row.

"While I made Caitlin work on a cure back there, I heard Polly talking about going to plan B: going back in time and killing Vlama the day before he can steal her researches. That why we must act, and act now."

"Barry, I get that, but you are in no shape of going out," pressed out Caitlin.

"I have a plan; look, you said that I stayed in control because my Speed-force is in high enough concentration to keep the virus at bay, right?"

"Humm… yeah, but now it's also hurting you, bad," reminded Caitlin, not liking the direction Barry was going with this, even without knowing what his plan was, "what do you have in mind?"

"We boost my Speed-force just a few hours, that's all I'm going to need. You still have the V9 recipe, don't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, is that the worst decision Barry has ever had? Do you think they should go ahead with that plan? Let me know in the comments.
> 
> There's gonna be a new chapter every week for the next month or so, with possibly a small break at Christmas, I'll keep you informed. Get ready for more Moving Forward coming back soon, and a 5x06 inspired story in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!


	14. The plan

Was Barry seriously asking his best friends to inject him with Velocity 9? Caitlin and Cisco looked at each other with the same thought running in through head. They heard that wrong, right? There's no way Barry would have suggested that, especially not after all the bad the drug did.

"Barry," Caitlin carefully and slowly pronounced, "I'm wasn't exaggerating when I said this serum the Galways made is killing you. Because of the high amount of Speed-force presents in your system to try and fight off the invader, the virus has grown exponentially stronger than anything I've seen in Jay. It's not even close. You can't keep fighting for much longer,"

"I don't have to fight forever, I just need a few moments, a few hours at best, to get back in, get their trust back and free their last prisoner," protested Barry, too stubborn for his own good. "I can do this, you can trust me."

"It's not about whether we trust you or not, or whether you can or can't achieve the mission," said Caitlin, gesturing as she kept on going with her explanation, "I don't think you understand the situation; the Speedforce is the root of the problem here. The lesser concentration of it inside Jay is the reason why, even if he's sick, he's not critical like you're about to become. If we do this, sure, it will boost your system for a moment, but when the virus will start feeding on the V9 like on an all-you-can-eat buffet... I'm not sure your body will be able to handle it, and we're not even talking about all the side effects of this drug itself and the withdraws issues."

"Come on, man, you saw what this drug to Hunter," protested Cisco.

"You will die if you don't start taking all of this seriously-"

"I am! I am taking things seriously," protested Barry as loud as he could, which wasn't strong enough to cover his friend's voices, but enough to cause them to stop talking. Except, the strain to his vocal cord forced the man to violently cough once, then twice in his painful windpipe.

The squabble forgotten for a short moment, the engineer went to lean a tad forward to gently massage his friend's back while Caitlin moved away from the bed to pick a few extra ice chips.

"Easy, man, don't exert yourself," soothed Vibe before the doctor came back and handed over the ice chips.

Patiently, both scientists waited for the CSI to gather himself and find the strength to speak again. His voice was seemingly weaker than before, but determination was shining brighter than ever in his eyes, "it's not just my life that's at stake here, it's the woman who's about to go through the same thing that I did and who could be, for all we know, Jay's apprentice. It's about the life of all the Metahuman on Earth 3 that will be at risk of being captured, experienced on and possibly controlled if Polly succeed. It's about the life of every single person on that Earth."

Caitlin felt her heart clenched; Barry had a point. He had billions of them, actually. But, still…

"Why can't we, at least, take the pump out?" She tried to compromise despite her best judgment.

Barry slightly shook his head, "the Galways believe I fell under their control thanks to that pump; if you take it out, they might not trust me enough to get anywhere near their captive. It needs to stay in if I wanna keep the act up."

"Unless you do fall under their spell for real," mumbled Cisco under his breath.

"Do you have a better idea?" Swiftly answered Barry to his best friend.

"Humm, yeah I do; allow Caitlin to take that damn thing out of you."

Struggling to keep her emotions at bay, Caitlin turned her head to the side and in a not-so-subtle way, while the men were arguing, wiped away the quickly forming tears in her eyes. To be fair, it didn't matter as the horror of possibly sacrificing Barry for the citizen of Earth 3 was all over her words, "you can't do this. You'll die."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. Barry," she almost shouted as she badly failed at hiding her shaking hands behind her back before they could be seen, "we need to get this pump out of you and make an antidote for...yesterday. Boosting your speed force, and the virus at the same time will kill you. Your life isn't worth it, I can't let you do that," she tearfully said.

"Yeah, it is worth it. It's my life versus the one every single person on Earth 3 that we're talking about. Jay would do it for us. Hell, he did do it when that bomb exploded in Central City and he came to try defusing it in Flashtime after it went kaboom," defended Barry while blinking a few times as he was fighting against sleep that was trying to reclaim him into darkness, "he could've raced back home, on his Earth, but he didn't. He pushed himself 'till he wasn't able to follow anymore and, he would've died with the rest of us if the mission hadn't been a success."

His words and pleading eyes were having an effect, but it was clear that the scientists weren't all convinced just yet.

"We could always send Cisco to take her out," proposed Caitlin.

"At least, let us deactivate your chip to make sure you can escape if you need to," added the engineer.

"Now that the Galways know about Cisco's new ability, they'll be prepared for it. Plus, I don't think this new speedster will let herself get anywhere close. But," swiftly added Barry, turning his head toward Cisco before the engineer could interrupt him, "you might have a point."

A smile almost formed on Vibe's lips at his first victory of the debate, but his face stayed grim at the thought of his friend running into a suicide mission in his condition and with the most dangerous drug they've ever encountered coursing through his veins. Wincing against the pain that was overwhelming his whole body, Barry shifted in the medical bed and took a moment to carefully examine both his friend, one at the time.

"Look Caitlin, Cisco… I know you guys care about me and I'm aware how risky what I'm asking is, I'm not stupid. I don't have a death wish; I really don't wanna die. Except, I can't lay down knowing billions of people's lives are about to get affected by another change in the timeline, especially knowing I could've done something about it."

Finishing his sentence, Barry looked up straight into Caitlin's eyes, "Cait; tell me, honestly, are you absolutely certain that I won't survive? Is there any chance I might get out of this?"

Damned heroes.

Caitlin sighed before answering, "no, I can't. It's just..."

She stopped and gave up on making the man see reason; he made his decision.

"Fine, let's do this," she yielded reluctantly, "let me try to see if I can't get you something to delay the upcoming side effects while Cisco gets into hacking. Meanwhile, try to rest a little."

Hopefully, all of this will be all done and dealt with by the time the West would come back to realize what they were doing. That's if Barry was to return and live to see another sunset.

"Don't tel... tell... Iris. And Joe," added the tired hero who was starting to lose his fight against consciousness and the pain.

"We won't," instinctively answered Cisco without hesitation which earned him a side look from Caitlin. Really? Did he agree to this so quickly and on the spot?

Happy to get his new term agreed on, Barry finally allowed his mind to slip back into darkness. Well, it's possible he just passed out, but, either way, he was out again.

"What? He wasn't going to stop fighting us on this," defended Cisco seeing the glare of death staring at him, "plus, Barry will come back before they are," he affirmed, feeling like saying it out loud would somehow make it happen.

Sighing, Caitlin went behind the scrub attach to start untying it as she wasn't going to need to operate for a few extra moments, "I hope you're right, for everyone's sake."

*****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

"We're as ready as we could be," declared Vibe who was sitting in the medical bay and on the chair that was the closest to the bed with his laptop on his thigh. The man had been working in that position for the last hour or so.

"You know this posture isn't good for your back," said Caitlin as she was finishing injecting the content of her syringe into the neck of the still sleeping speedster. Her white lab coat over her blue shirt had now replaced her scrub.

"I'm good," answered her friend, but still straightening himself from his crouched position. Getting up, Cisco stretched his back with both of his hands placed on his hips and, once that was done, he put down his laptop on his chair.

The young engineer's eyes fell on his best friend who groaned in his sleep and shifted on the bed, "is it really gonna help him?" He asked, worried, to the doctor who had already turned her back on both her friends.

After putting down the now empty syringe on the desk, Caitlin hesitated before turning around, "to be honest, I'm not sure it will do much good. My serum helped decrease his fever just a tad earlier, but between the pump still inside of him and the buffet we're about to serve to the Galways' virus, whatever effect what I'm giving him might have won't last long."

"I was afraid you'd said that, what about Jay? Can't he help?"

Not that Cisco wanted to throw the senior speedster under the bus, but Jay was getting much better and way faster. The other man's chances of coming back and living to see another day were way higher than Barry's.

"Jay's fever is almost broken, and I just took another sample to see how the virus is retracting and responding to my serum-"

"But?"

Of course, there was a but coming, if there weren't one they wouldn't be heading toward that slippery and incredibly dangerous path of shooting Barry with V9 and sending him right back into the serpent's lair in his condition.

"But we can't be sure until he wakes up if Jay is still brainwashed. Plus, it might take a moment before he does come around as all of this really took a strong toll on him; he's completely worn up, a little like he was coming out of Flashtime."

Cisco sighed and approached the before, not having anything to add to this, which allowed Caitlin to continue, "what about you? You deactivate the chip?"

It was wincing in sympathy that Cisco answered; "actually, I took it down to 5% of his capacities."

The small pause he took to breath was almost enough for the frowning doctor to add something, but Cisco was faster, "if Barry wants to make it real, it wouldn't look good if the Galways were to shock him, or try to, while he wasn't looking."

Confusion turned into understanding, "that way he can feel it and react without being paralysed," she realized before turning on her short heels

Turning around, Caitlin simultaneously passed both her hands on each side of her head before lowering them behind her neck and exhaling deeply. Her strong composure was barely holding on, and despite her words that there was no way of predicting for sure Barry's chances of survival, which was scientifically accurate, she couldn't shake that feeling in her guts.

The V9 syringe was sitting on the desk right in front of her, within her reach, but the strength to go ahead and grab it was being denied by her mind. Witnessing his friend's inner struggle, the same one that was eating him alive at this instant, Cisco advanced next to her and gently put his arm around her shoulders.

"You don't have to do it."

"I do. We do. Barry made his decision, and we can't really stop him," she said, straightening herself and extending her arm to go for the Velocity 9. Except, a swift movement from her left beat her to it and stole the instrument from within her grasp in a second.

"Can't we?" Seriously asked Cisco, with his fingers wrapped around the object he just took from his friend and taking a moment to look at it, pensive, "in his state and with his powers dampened, we're not obliged to let him go."

Shaking her head, the doctor reached out to retake possession of her syringe. "It's Barry we're talking about, he  _has_  to go. How do you think he'll look at us if we keep him here against his will while another universe is about to fall into possible chaos? How would you feel knowing you stopped Barry from going and this new Flashpoint destroys Jay's world?"

Exhaling, Cisco let go of his grasp on the instrument and allowed Caitlin to take it, silently agreeing to this course of action once and for all.

"For the record, I'm still against it," called out a voice in the doorway. Ralph. The man was leaning against the frame and observing all their actions; the scientists promised not to tell the West family but didn't say a thing about keeping it quiet from the Elongated Man.

Side glances were exchanged, but Caitlin still leaned over the unconscious hero and with her free hand, gently tapped his reddened cheek between two infected scabs.

"Barry? We're ready."

The pain was all over the green eyes that slowly opened to them, fighting the heavy eyelids. At least, they were clean from any hate or anger. With one subtle head movement, the doctor allowed Vibe to take off the power dampening bracelet as Barry was in the clear, for now.

"We're ready," she repeated while Cisco was also taking out all the sensors off the hero's body. "Are you sure you still want to proceed?"

"Yeah," rasped Barry, pushing himself up on his elbow and scanning around before stopping a second on Ralph's face that was staring back.

"We haven't told Iris or Joe, they're both resting downstairs and they should stay there for another couple of hours," indicated Cisco, crossing his arms, "that's the time you have to come back here."

"I'll be back before," whispered Barry, barely enough to be heard, "give it to me," he requested with his eyes finding the V9 syringe and offering his left arm for the injection.

"Still hating this idea," muttered Caitlin before putting down the drug on the metallic table next to the bed and exchanging it for an alcohol swab she wiped against the skin in the crook of Barry's elbow.

 _Hate it too_ , thought Barry, keeping his composure and not even flinching when the needle approached his limb. Last chance to get out of this.

For a second, his glance met Caitlin's, realizing she was having the same thought than him; it wasn't too late to back down. With a swift nod, he gave up his last chance to avoid this suicidal mission. The syringe pierced his skin and this time, he flinched, but not for long as the sensation of the speed drug spread in his veins.

His eyes instantly snapped open. He didn't even remember closing them. Damn, talk about fast acting drug! Barry could feel the effects almost immediately and it was exhilarating beyond words: all this speed, this boost of energy, this…  _speed_! He could barely hear Caitlin talking to him.

"How do you fe-"

The rest of the sentence was lost in a blur as Barry could feel every part of his body vibrating intensely, almost painfully, from head to toe. Before Caitlin had the time to finish pronouncing the last word of her sentence, Barry was back in the room, standing in his Flash suit with the cowl down and blue and yellow lightning sparkling all over his body. His head was slightly tilted backward, his eyes were closed, and his breathing was deep, deliberately slow, and loud.

"Haven't feel so good in a long time," whispered Barry with his still closed eyes. This time, his low voice wasn't due to weakness, but to his indescribable, intoxicating, well-being, "don't feel sick anymore. Never felt so alive," he said after exhaling deeply and opening his eyes.

"It's only because of the high of the drug; it won't last," grimly reminded Caitlin, straightening herself and facing her friend, "just make sure you come back here as soon as possible before the drug fails you."

"Oh, I got this," confidently said Barry, almost sounding like himself again, "just open me a breach," he requested, missing the worried looks being shared in front of him.

If it wasn't for all his scratches and scabs, and the blue lightning sparkling without interruption, his friends might've believed that. Hopefully, the man's confidence wasn't just the drug talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking bets; can Barry pull this off AND come back alive? Who's ready to meet Jay's apprentice next week? Eagerly waiting for your comments :)
> 
> Sorry I didn't have enough time to finish Moving Forward's newest chapters. Getting to it this weekend :) Hope you'll all ready. Plus, gonna start working on the second part of my 5x07 inspired story.


	15. Enter Lady Indigo

Barely controlling the tremors in his body, Barry made a full stop right outside the high fences keeping unwanted visitors out of the Galway's laboratory on Earth 3. In the last minute or so, he started feeling the virus simultaneously fighting and feeding on the V9, already. Caitlin was right when she said his time was limited. At this rate, it wasn't going to take long before his peak of strength was going to crash and, after that, his condition was going to go downhill fast.

"Take me to Mrs. Galway," strongly requested Barry after speeding up and stopping at the security barrier. His vibrating features and the blue flashes of lightning sparkling all around his body would've been scary enough, but the bloody and shredded vest of this Earth's Vibe dangling in the speedster's grab sure added a spooky effect.

"Right this way," said the slightly disturbed security guard surveying the gate before gesturing at his colleague to open the entrance, not that it really mattered since phasing inside would be quite easy. The speedster didn't want to charge in after being supposedly captured by a breacher.

"Tell Mrs. Galway her puppet is back," instructed the guard to the same co-worker positioned inside the small cabin from which he was operating the gate.

A few minutes later, flanked by three armed guards, the still vibrating speedster made his entrance into the eerie medical laboratory where he got two foreign bodies implanted in him against his will. Right there, waiting, were the evil couple awaiting his comeback and showing no sign they were happy that their puppet was back.

"Leave us," said Polly to the guards and advancing toward Barry like a lion moving on her prey while swiftly attaching her curly hair into a bun behind her head, "and you, take your top off. Then sit on that chair," she instructed to Barry before pointing the chair behind the cold metallic table.

Hiding the shiver of fear passing in his back, mostly thanks to his vibrating, Barry took a deep breath and took back control of his emotions. After sending back his whole body into normal speed, the CSI cooperated with the instructions.

"I escaped from the breacher and managed to kill him on my way out," he explained, carelessly throwing away the bloody jacket on the ground before sitting on the chair, shirtless.

It took all of Barry's strength not to show any reaction during the careful examination he found himself subjected to. Right next to him, the scientist woman in white coat started moving around and probing the man at multiple places, starting by his side, and then moving up to his neck. She was, no doubt, testing and verifying he still had everything implanted in him. Satisfied, she looked up at her husband who was standing nearby in his black suit and silently following her every move with his eyes. When Polly turned her back on the speedster, a sudden and unexpected shock appeared at the base of his neck, just enough to slightly jostle Barry.

For half a second there, Barry almost stayed still, which would have revealed the fact he wasn't under her control anymore. But, thanks to his speed and swift thinking, he reacted and corrected his response by pushing a fake groan of pain out of lips before jostling and twitching his head and limbs in many directions as if he was in pain.

 _Thank Cisco, that was a good call_ , thought the speedster, happy to be able to receive a soft warning about surprised attempts at controlling him.

Turning around and smirking in satisfaction, Polly took her right hand out of her coat pocket, which was undoubtedly where she was hiding the controller.

"He's good," she assured her husband who nodded.

"Where are we with the plan?" Asked Barry before an uncontrollable tremor in his left shoulder jostled him and forced him to take a couple of seconds break before continuing his sentence.

"I'm ready to go back in the field," assured the speedster while getting back on his feet to prove his point.

The brunette wife of Daniel Galway studied him from head to toe, "he does look better," she commented to herself and her husband, not bothering to talk directly back to the supposedly brainwashed Meta, "it might be because of the continuous support of the pump."

"Might be," thoughtfully said Daniel, lifting his right hand to scrub his chin for a few seconds before hardening against his features and lowering his arm, "but it doesn't matter now as it will soon be over."

"Yeah, maybe," smoothly approved Polly. Approaching her husband, she wrapped her left arm around his strong torso, "I'm just glad we made the right decision by reproducing this strategy on her."

Barry forced himself not to react at the comment. Was there a pump inside that other girl?

"Asking permission to re-join the mission," reinterred Barry to the annoyed faces that finally decided to acknowledge his very existence, even if the Galways were staring at him like he was some parasite.

Well, acknowledging his existence was one thing, but addressing him was an entirely different one. That would be like admitting Barry was an actual person.

"He'd already proven himself more than this girl ever could, he can back her up," commented Daniel before taking his left hand out of his pocket and crossing his arms on his chest.

"Alright, let's use him. Let's send them both," agreed Polly.

"Where are we going? Where's the other girl?" Inquired Barry a tad too quickly; he should know by now not to ask too many questions if he didn't want to raise suspicions. As he was speaking, he got up.

"Just wait here, she'll join you," instructed Polly, slightly turning around and gesturing toward the seat the speedster just got up from.

Good thing she turned on herself another time right after her sentence was over because she missed the way Barry clenched his fists; he needed to leave as soon as possible. Barry needed to get out before he would get worse again. Speeding around in the whole facility was another option, but a risky one. What would happen if he didn't find her? What if she had a chip in her neck too? What would be the effects of passing the parameters with her if she did?

One false move and Barry could reveal he wasn't really loyal to them and compromised the other speedsters' chance of escaping. That, or become a prisoner again.

Hiding his inner struggles as best he could, Barry sat down again, ready to wait.

Hard to tell how much time the hero spent all alone sitting in the dark and eerie laboratory, especially when all his concentration was oriented toward fighting the tremors and the odds sensations growing in his body. He could've been waiting for five minutes or a full hour. Or, maybe even two. Who knew?

One thing was for sure; Barry didn't have hours in front of him. The uncomfortable feeling in his stomach was only getting more painful, and the speedster was in a non-stop battle to keep himself from vomiting the bile rising in his throat. To make thing worse, the scabs' itching was more intense than ever under the suit's cowl, and the hero's fingernails were digging deep in his neck, all the way to the blood.

Before all of his energy was depleted trying to fight off the virus, a mix of bright blue and dark purple lightning filled the room, and a young female speedster made a full stop a couple of feet away from Barry.

There she was, standing in front of him, the last brainwashed hostage who was possibly Jay's missing apprentice. Even from a distance and with her mask, it was clear that she was young, very young. That speedster couldn't be older than twenty-five years old. The young lady was wearing a beautifully made full body speedster suit covering her from her toes to her neck. The top part was a bright royal blue with a flashy purple band going up from the hip to the waist on each side and narrowing all the way to the middle part of the suit, on both the front and the back of it. In the middle of the purple band was two smaller white lines traced in an X pattern. A tad higher, on her chest and in the middle of the suit was a round white symbol with the initials L and I placed in the centre. The bottom line of the L was crossing the middle of the second letter. A white line was bordering the whole high V collar. The woman was wearing matching blue leather pants and purple boots. Finally, there was a weird electronic device with a light placed on the speedster's right blue glove.

Her identity was hidden behind a small purple mask around her eyes. Red highlights were shining brightly in the braided blonde hair tied in a bun behind her head.

"We have our orders," harshly said the speedster woman before throwing to the red speedster the newspaper she had been holding in her hands since entering the room.

"What's-"

"Let's get to work," she firmly assured, interrupting Barry. Her smooth voice giving more clues about her young age.

"Where are we going?" Asked Barry, getting up from his chair with his eyes staring at the newspaper. The front page was displaying a man in his late 50s, at least, with a square jaw, a short grey beard and very short grey hair.

_Vlama Tech's share on the rise_

That was the title of the article. And, with the photo situated under it, there was a note identifying the man on the photography as Christopher Vlama, the CEO of the company.

"Not where you're going, it's when you're going," corrected Polly, entering the room behind her new puppet, "take notes that you're not going to try to infiltrate his company. Flash has already failed once and they'll be expecting you."

"What should we do instead?" asked Barry while walking next to the other speedster and only sparing a moment to take a real good look at her face, trying to determine who she could be. Maybe he knew her on his Earth.

It was hard to tell with her mask on, but the concealed features were unfamiliar. One thing for sure; she looked pretty pale and a few scratches were appearing at multiple areas on her neck, but nothing too brutal.

"Your mission is to go back in January 2006, on the 14th to be precise, and kill Vlama before he can steal my researches. By the time you'll come back, we'll be the rich ones," smiled Polly who was now scrubbing her hands together in excitement before pointing at Barry, "you, you make sure our new puppet gets there and do her work the right way."

Barry nodded instantly before gathering electricity in his body; time to go before his batteries would be completely depleted. May the speed-force be with them, right?

"We won't disappoint you," assured Barry, "any other instruction?"

"No, kill Vlama and come back as fast as you can. You may carry your mission now."

As soon as they got released with a few buttons pressing, allowing them to leave the parameter without getting shocked, they both took off. Oh, sure, Barry was going to take them to the past, but not to the instructed year. Yellow and blue lightning from the sick red speedster were binding perfectly with the blue and purple ones from the young girl as they started turning around the laboratory, outside, to gather speed. Their feet were barely touching the ground as their surroundings quickly became a blur, prompting both people to lose count on how many laps they took around the facility.

Carefully going just fast enough to open up a portal while trying to keep some energy in the tank for the upcoming fight, Barry couldn't help but notice how intensely concentrated his younger friend seemed to be just to keep on running side by side with him. Was she already at her top speed? Was the V9 giving an edge to Barry or was that girl slower than him in general? Considering how much faster she fell under the control of the Galways' virus, chances were she indeed had a lesser concentration of speed-force inside of her than Barry.

A small blue portal suddenly appeared in their trail as both speedsters ran past the back of the building another time and it kept on growing and growing with every passing second 'til the Speed-force portal was finally big enough. Despite the lady in blue's brainwashed state, she hesitated and slowed down just a tad and losing ground. Reaching behind with his right arm, while still going forward, Barry took a strong grab on the woman's left arm and firmly pushed her back in the right direction. Together, they jumped into the portal leading them to a universe where time was non-existent and where past, present and future were omnipresent. Flashes of moments from both this Earth and Barry's home, including that one moment he came to ask Jay for his help against Savitar, appeared and disappeared on each side of the speedster's duo.

For a fraction of a second, which was forever for a speedster, Barry spotted what he thought was Flash Day on his Earth with the crowd seemingly shouting at the stage and monumental posters displaying lightning symbols behind. Except, the colours weren't right; they were all blue and purple with the words Lady Indigo written all over.

Lady Indigo.

L.I.

Could this be the girl's name? Or, more precisely, her Meta's code name? The lightning that ran to the stage, as the moment was disappearing from the timestream, sure looked like hers,

A few more moments, a few more steps, and the aimed year appeared in sight. Time to get off the bus before it would be too late. Or, too early...

With one sharp movement, Barry threw himself off the dimensional track. Thrown off with a way more significant force than Barry anticipated, both people got harshly ejected and fell on solid asphalt with a loud thud and rolling a few times on themselves. Their landing was accompanied by simultaneous groans of pain.

"Hope that's not a broken rib," quietly complained Barry between his teeth.

Slowly, Barry pushed himself on his elbows and mentally went over his condition to catalogue his injuries; definitely bruised ribs, but hopefully, none were broken.

Looking to his left, he checked the confused blue speedster who was pushing herself up.

"Where are we?" She asked, her glance darting around; they were on the street of a small neighbourhood.

Darkness was surrounding them and there wasn't a single soul in sight, which probably meant it was the middle of the night. No doubt about it: it wasn't the location of their mission.

"Central City, 2004," informed Barry to the Indigo woman while getting back to his feet, slowly.

The young lady turned on herself to face her companion; "we must open another portal NOW! We have a mission to accomplish!"

Barry shook his head negatively, "sorry, Lady Indigo, we can't. We must ensure that Polly dies, tonight. We must fix the timeline."

Wrong answer.

Blue and purple lightings sparkled around the blue suit.

"NO!" Shouted the young lady the before taking off and charging straight at the red hero. Nothing and no one was going to stop her from completing her mission.

Doing so, she confirmed another hypothesis; she was slower than Barry was on a typical day, let alone with V9 residue flooding his bloodstream.

Swiftly, Barry moved to the right and dodged the attack, but still cringed from the aching pain in his legs. His high of energy, thanks to the V9, was running out and sickness was about to take over once more. Turning on herself, Lady Indigo charged back at him, aiming for his back. Once again, Barry moved out of the way, grunting. He needed to end this soon. He might have the speed advantage, but his endurance was depleting fast.

Moving from defensive to offensive, Barry ran at his adversary at superspeed. Any person still awake at this time of the night and who would take a look outside would only see a lightning storm of blue, yellow and purple. Meanwhile, inside that storm, punches were exchanged, matching almost evenly. For each hit connecting, another opposite one would follow.

Managing to stop the cycle and dodging out of the way, Barry ran a few feet away from his adversary; "stop! We're in the same camp; you don't have to do this!" He shouted to the younger speedster.

"Yeah, I do!" Affirmed the blue lady, stopping for half a second before rushing in the opposite direction.

In the next instant, she turned around and headed back, gathering speed at every step. Here comes a supersonic punch. Planting his feet on the ground, The Flash allowed his powers to take over his body and got ready to avoid the collision.

When the time arrived, Barry sent a clear message to his legs; move! Except, that was the instant his limbs froze from the fatigue and sickness and his knees buckled underneath him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are your first impression of Lady Indigo? I can promise you'll know everything you need to know to figure it out before Christmas ;) Let me know your thoughts in the comments, always deeply appreciated.
> 
> Plus, you'll get more Moving Forward chapters next week! And, gonna work on Daughter's nightmare too, if you guys don't mind how different it is from the actual episode was...
> 
> Stay tuned!


	16. The Crimson Comet

It was too late to avoid the hit. Barry's knees failed him and he started falling but was intercepted by the charge his adversary, Jay's young female apprentice, before he could hit the ground. The fast and robust punch connected with Barry's jaw and sent him flying many feet away. The next second, when his body touched the unforgiving hard asphalt underneath, a shout of pain escaped his lips. If his ribs were only bruised before, he now had a few broken ones.

Stunned and in pain, Barry wasn't able to move before Lady Indigo ran to him and positioned her body on top of the CSI with her right arm vibrating; she was going to crush his heart, literally!

Gasping as fear and the man's survival instinct took over his mind, Barry forced his whole body to vibrate as well. Shock was written all over the woman's face when her hand inefficiently passed right through her new enemy's chest. Taking advantage of the few seconds of distraction, Flash rolled and phased through the lady to free himself and jump back up to his feet.

Digging in his remaining strength, Barry concentrated all of his powers in his right arm and sent a powerful and breathtaking punch straight on the side of her head. Defeated, Lady Indigo fell like a rock on the ground with a thump.

"I'm sorry," whispered Barry to the young girl as he was breathing heavily and leaning forward, hands on his knees, to catch his breath.

He just needed a moment to summon back some energy before the next portion of his plan. First thing first, was he at the right address? Was he on the right day? At the right time? Going back in time, Barry aimed for the date of Polly's murder, and the Galways' home, based on the information they got before leaving for Earth 3 a few days ago. Hopefully, there were enough similarities between the universe to bring him back to the right place and the right time.

It looks like these data were just as reliable as they could be on this earth considering how a yellow flash surged in the night from somewhere further down the road and flew right into the house.

Jay. Had to be.

It had to be the Jay who just got brainwashed by Daniel and had been sent back in time to save the man's wife, the event that caused all the changes to the present.

Based on his experience, the red hero from the first Earth knew there was no bringing everything back exactly the way they were before all of this. It was a lesson he learned the hard way after Flashpoint. But, even if this universe would forever be altered, the least Barry could do was minimized the damages by ensuring Polly's death.

Swiftly, Barry dragged the unconscious lady in blue on the residence's front balcony, hidden by the pieces of furniture on it and the cover of darkness. It was a lot less suspicious than having an unresponsive body lying in the middle of the road for someone to find or to roll over. Once that was done, Barry raced inside but not before gulping down nausea and barely stopping himself from falling on his face at the sharp agonizing pain spreading in his body.

"No, no no… not now," he muttered to himself.

He couldn't let Jay and this universe down; he needed to keep pushing.

The CSI didn't enter the home a second too soon. Barely stepping in, he instantly spotted Jay victoriously standing over a terrified house robber wearing black from head to toe, including a black toque, black shoes and a black ninja-like mask that had slipped from over his mouth and nose. Right behind the duo was a younger Polly Galway in pink bottom pyjama and white top slumped against the kitchen's bottom cabinets.

The first detail Barry noticed about Polly was her hands loosely pressing against her side. Blood was freely escaping between the fingers of the woman who was tensing up in agony and fighting to stay conscious. It didn't take a CSI to connect the dots; the woman had been shot and was probably not going to make it without a speedster taking her into the ER in the next instant or so, especially since her husband was either knocked out or not home at the moment.

So, that's what changed. Jay probably ran her to the help she desperately needed as soon as he was done murdering the criminal on the ground who was shaking in pure terror. The ecchymosis on the robber's face was proof of the mistreatment he had suffered at superspeed.

Without wasting any second and energy in a pointless debate against a brainwashed Jay, Barry jumped into action and slammed his body into the older man's.

"GO!" Shouted Earth 1 Flash to the criminal while Jay was staggering to stay on his feet.

As much as it pained Barry to let a man like that run freely, he knew that putting the timeline back together as much as he could was more important at this instant.

From the corner of his right eye, the CSI spotted his adversary charging back with his right fist pulling back to get momentum. Once again, a sudden wave of agony hit Barry harder than any physical contact ever, which prevented him from dodging and prompted a shout of pain out of his lips just before he got brutally punched in his side.

"ARG!" Shouted Barry again at the hit on his broken ribs.

Consciousness was threatening to leave Barry who found himself on the ground, seeing stars and whimpering without having any recollection of falling.

"Is that all you got, Flash?" Jay mocked from above.

Barry made a weak attempt to put himself up by putting the palms of his shaky hands on the ground and pushing on them, but a foot stepping on his limbs had him shouting again in pain and falling back face first.

Black spots clouded his vision and the hero found himself unable to keep the nauseous inside anymore. In the next moment, he vomited all the bile of his empty stomach on the ground while still laying down on his face.

For an instant, the scientist feared he was going to drown in a puddle of his own vomit.

What a way to go, he thought to himself.

A strong hand grabbed him by the back of his suit and, for a second, gratitude was the thought overwhelming his mind. That was until he realized the gesture wasn't to assist him, quite the opposite; Jay grabbed the CSI so that he could throw him brutally against the adjacent wall.

Before gravity could get involved in this fight and claim the man's body, a storm of lightning and wind surged and tightly hold Barry against the same wall.

Thanks to the fingers wrapped around the hero's throat, the oxygen reserve in Barry's lungs was swiftly decreasing.

"J... Ja-" weakly whispered Barry,

Instead of answering, the other speedster's hold grew stronger. In the next moment, Jay rose his prey a little higher, 'till Barry's feet found themselves kicking the air helplessly after losing contact with the ground. That was the end.

"M' so'ry," said Barry to no one in particular when he started feeling his eyes rolling in their sockets and tremors, increasingly violent ones, shook his body.

The man never even felt his body hitting the ground one last time; he had surrendered to darkness way before that.

***FLASHFLASHFLASH***

A few moments earlier:

"Lily!" Shouted a voice in the night just before a hero with red boots, blue pants, and a red suit stopped next to the unconscious form, "just be okay."

Jay Garrick knelt right next to the young girl's head and delicately pressed his fingers against her neck while his opposite hand went on her chest. When the beating pulse underneath his finger and the rise and fall of the girl's chest registered, Jay sighed in relief.

"Thank God. I'm coming back for you," he said before, just as tenderly, patted her shoulder.

A strong thump, like something heavy had been harshly thrown into a wall, came to his ears.

Barry! He thought with shivers running down his spine.

When Jay woke up at S.T.A.R. Labs earlier, he instantly realized how he was overwhelmed by fatigue, more than he had ever experienced before. But he also woke up feeling more like himself than he had in a long, long time. The combination of the long period since Jay last received a dose, the nap he got and Caitlin's newest version of her counteract serum were enough to put the real Jay back in the driver seat, but the joy was short lived. Indeed, the time on the clock at that moment was 6:48, hours after Barry left, and the first thing he heard were voices arguing loudly not too far from his bed about their missing speedster. Something went wrong. Barry should be back by now, but he wasn't. The young hero was either prisoner again or, he got trapped in time and found himself unable to come back.

Either way, Jay had to go.

Just like that, not too long after being up, the Earth 3's guardian was back in his universe and was searching for his friend through space and time.

Finally arriving at this place and date, Jay was left wondering why he didn't come here in the first place. Now that he was there and found Lily, everything became so obvious. Of course, Barry would've tried to fix the timeline before coming back, even in his condition.

"Hang in there," he said to the woman in blue before flashing inside the small white house and facing himself, literally.

Barely feet away, standing in the living room, was his past-self choking Barry against the wall. The Flash was barely moving at the moment. Not, not moving, more like shaking. Without hesitation, the present time Jay charged at the other one and tackled him with all his strength. The physical contact forced the mind-controlled speedster off his victim and sent him stumbling and falling on the other side of the room.

Free, Barry's body slumped all the way to the floor in a half-seated position against the wall he'd been trapped on moments earlier. One glance wasn't enough to see if Barry was breathing again, but the absence of gasping now that the pressure on the windpipe was gone was worrying.

"Stay down!" Ordered Jay to his other self, hands on his hips and unsure what good it would do considering how the other speedster was staring back with hate filling his brown eyes.

The brainwashed man managed the put his right feet on the ground again and put himself in an unstable position balanced between his right feet and his opposite knee.

A short, painful to hear, gasp coming from the ground drew the present Jay's attention away for half a second, but he forced his attention back in the game. If Barry was still breathing and alive, he could wait a little while. Rebalancing his own weight between his feet, Jay was getting ready to fight back and defend both his life and Barry's.

Electricity sparkled in the two speedsters' eye and, as his other self was still getting back up, Jay charged right at him… just to pass through his ghostly-self that turned translucent and then immaterial in a blink of an eye. Confusion was the last registered expression on the brainwashed hero before he completely disappeared and ceased to be, erased by time. Stopping on the other side of the room and turning toward where his past self was standing a moment ago, Jay's brows furrowed. How?

What?

If nobody was planning to save the wounded Polly Galway, that means she wasn't going to live and see her research got stolen, which would lead to... No, it wasn't making sense. It was Daniel who sent Jay back in time the first time; it wasn't Polly. Unless the Earth 3 hero was now destined to come back in the present before all of this …With time travel, sometimes, it was better not to think about it too much. Speaking of which; a headache was already appearing.

Plus, the priority at this instant wasn't to make sense of what just happened; the older hero had two speedsters to take care of. After looking for a half second at the now unconscious and dying Polly, Jay rushed back at Barry's side and he clearly wasn't too early as the V9's blue flashes of lightning was sparkling more and more intensively around him. If that wasn't enough, the thick white foam was also surfacing from the younger Flash's mouth accompanied by uncontrollable arms and legs movements going in many directions.

Barry was about to seize. It wasn't good.

"Dammit, kid," cursed Jay under his breath. Was he too late?

The shaking hero's head violently hit the wall behind him and caused another cursed from Jay, forcing him out of his short-lived stupor.

Swiftly, Earth 3's Flash took a strong hold on Barry and ran out of the door, also retrieving his apprentice on his way out. Jay's still recuperating body was aching, and his lungs were burning under the effort, but Jay wasn't going to slow down. Instead, he pushed through his physical limits to gather speed. For an instant, his ability to open up a speed-force portal was put into questioning. Could he do it? What other option was there? He couldn't stop. He couldn't let go of his precious cargo.

Heavily breathing, the senior speedster found a renewed energy only a true hero could gather under these conditions and hit another gear. If all of his remaining endurance and focus weren't so centred around his breathing and his determination to keep on going, he would've shouted in joy at the sight of the blue portal appearing. They were going home!

A few moments later, jumping out of the temporal flow and landing in the shining blue particle accelerator, Jay stumbled onto himself at the first step he did on the ground. His action led him to accidentally release his friends and sent them all rolling at super speed. The man himself made multiple barrels before making a full stop near the interior wall with an unexpected agony spreading in his left ankle. When he tried to get up on it, groans of pain escaped his lips. Dammit!

"HELP!" Shouted Jay at the top of his lungs.

A few feet away from him laid the young blue lady he called Lily earlier and, almost three times that distance in the opposite direction was Barry. Both of them were still out for the count, but, while Lady Indigo was still unmoving on her back, Barry's twitching and shaking grew exponentially. All of the hero's limbs were convulsing in all directions.

"HELP!" Shouted the older speedster again, struggling to get up. Succeeding, merely, the badly limping speedster clenched his teeth tight to suppress the pain and the vocal protests of his abused body.

Blood, alarming amount of it, was coming out of Barry's mouth and mixing with the white foam, which made Jay's stomach twitched even more. Before he could shout again, rapidly approaching footstep came to his ears like music. Letting himself fall on the ground, worn out and in pain, Jay stared straight at Caitlin who was sprinting toward him with a medical bag on her shoulder. Cisco and Joe weren't too far behind.

"Please, help him," pleaded Earth 3's hero, pointing at Barry.

The doctor knees fell hard on the floor next to her friend but still kept a minimum safe distance to avoid being hit by the limbs kicking and convulsing all over the place.

"Oh god," she whispered to herself at the sad scene in front of her.

"Caitlin?"

The sudden appearance of Cisco at her side pushed her back into doctor mode. Swallowing her saliva, she spoke again, "go get a gurney, now," she instructed, before quickly correcting herself after a swift look at the other girl, "make that two!"

Between the two fallen speedsters and staying close to Jay's position, Joe was struggling to keep his composure. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just go check on her," Caitlin told him before plunging her hands into her medical bag in desperate need for something to help ease that seizure. It wasn't good. The increasingly violent convulsions weren't good. The blood wasn't either.

Rapidly, Barry's breathing worsened and sent him coughing, multiple times. With each passing second, the interval between each sneeze was getting closer and closer while the fallen kept on expelling more foam and blood. At the sight, Caitlin almost hit herself; she should've done this the second she arrived.

"Dammit, Jay, help me turn him on his side," she ordered to the speedster. Injured or not, she needed more help and the Earth 3's hero was more than willing to help, "he's about to drown on his own blood."

Hang in there, Barry, hang in there, she thought as she carefully and gently turned him to ease his breathing. He needed urgent help like yesterday!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Jay jumping back into action? Do you think Barry's gonna make it? Leave a comment, so deeply appreciated.
> 
> On a side note, almost done with the draft of Daughter's Nightmare latest chapter. Since it's way longer than I anticipated, I could split it in two to have something to post for sure this week, or I could post the whole thing in one shot, but it might take longer to update. Any preference?


	17. Uncertainty

No matter how worn up he was, Jay stubbornly stayed in the smaller medical room, refusing to leave his apprentice's bedside. He couldn't rest, at least not until he knew she was going to be okay. Not until he knew both she and Barry were going to make it and fight another day. Coming out of the medbay, Caitlin found the speedster dozing on a chair strategically placed next to Lily's bed. The poor hero looked so damn exhausted; it was almost criminal to wake him up. But if Jay were half as protective of his protégé as Barry was about the people he cared about, it would be just as cruel to take the risk of the Earth 3's hero waking up later on, alone, with Lily missing and without having any updates on the young red hero.

"Jay?" Gently said Caitlin with her left hand gently laying down on the hero's right shoulder.

Jostled, Jay swiftly extracted himself out of the woman's grasp.

"What's-?" He asked, gasping and looking around, "Lily?" He asked first, before turning his head and meeting Caitlin's tired eyes. "Barry?"

The doctor had taken off the top of her operation scrubs even if she still had one speedster patient to go next; chances are things got bloody in the room. Her tired eyes and features just added to the clues pointing out to a difficult procedure, but at least she wasn't in tears, so it was always a good sign.

"I took the chip and the pump out," started Caitlin while passing her left hand, the one that wasn't on Jay's shoulder anymore, in her hair, "but, we almost lost him twice on the table in the process. His vitals crashed as we were getting started and he went into D-fib later, but we managed to restart his heart and stabilize him."

As if speaking these words and forcing her brain to relive the still too fresh and too vivid memories of earlier was too painful, Caitlin took a pause to exhale deeply the second her sentence was over. Moving away, the doctor went to grab a chair for herself.

"Is he okay?" Jay asked tiredly.

Taking a hold on an uncomfortable plastic chair, Caitlin dragged it next to the speedster and allowed her exhausted body to fall into it before answering. Was Barry okay? He was as far as possible from it, but he was still fighting. He was still with them. For now.

"Cisco is finishing to get him more comfortable before bringing him here. Once the room is clear, we'll be able to take the chip and the pump out of her," she said while pointing at the young woman with her head, "she's going to be okay. So would you if you give your body the time to regain its strength."

Jay nodded in an almost imperceptible way. The hero was having a tough time worrying about his health at the moment when there was still one more thought weighing heavily on his mind concerning Barry's condition, "what about all the blood? Did he have internal bleeding?"

"Actually, he bit his tongue pretty bad, that's where the bleeding came from. It went down his throat and lungs, but I was able to stitch the wound and clean his airway," assured Caitlin, a small, tired smile appearing on her lips as she was finally able to deliver good news.

Sadly, that was the only one she had and her smile disappeared just as fast. The way her features darkened again and tensed up in obvious concern wasn't doing a thing to reassure the senior speedster.

"But the truth is, he's having trouble breathing at the moment and his temperature is dangerously high," she added, her voice intonation pressing on the next-to-last word.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jay asked again, concerned constricting his throat.

Turning her head, Caitlin looked once again at the sleeping young girl on the bed before answering, avoiding eye contact:

"I... I don't know, she answered truthfully, "between Barry's body trying to flush out the Galways' virus and the V9 withdrawal symptoms. The next 48 hours are going to be critical. I can't give him anything to ease his withdrawal without risking boosting the virus again; his body will have to fight everything off on his own. Except, he's so weak that I'm not sure he'll be able to pull this off..."

Tremors passed in the young doctor body as she was finishing her last sentence. A small sob escaped her throat as the words left her mouth; a sound she tried to cover up by looking down and putting her face in her hands. She knew, hours ago, that it couldn't end well. She had warned Barry. Why did he have to go anyway?

Why didn't she try harder to keep him here? Cisco was right. They could've physically restrained him and prevent him from leaving.

Also staring at his young apprentice, Jay found himself unable to move a single muscle. Eaten away by his guilt, he couldn't find the strength to reach out to Caitlin and comfort her.

"I'm so, so sorry. For all of this," apologized Jay, feeling his shoulders shaking slightly.

Gaining control over her emotions for the moment, Caitlin sniffed loudly and rose her head out of her hands, frowning in confusion. As she spoke again, tears from a second earlier were still rolling down her cheeks.

"What are you apologizing for? You saved Barry, and you saved Lily, Jay. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Jay shook his head, "I'm sorry for all of this," he said, gesturing at the bigger medical bay behind down and at the sleeping Lady Indigo in front of them, "is my fault. I should've found her sooner. I could've avoided this whole mess had I been a better mentor," he regrettably said.

It wasn't without a little guilt that Caitlin suddenly only realized now that while she was so concentrated on her own pain and the fate of her closest friends during the past few days, she never stopped to think about what unfolded on Earth 3 before they all raced there.

"What happened to her?" She asked while wiping her tears.

Jay sighed profoundly before gently touching the sleeping form's arm, "she went missing a bit less than two weeks ago, right after I allowed her to take on an alert on her own. It was the first time she went into danger on her own since I started training her. I should've known it was a trap, planted by Daniel Galway. She got captured because I wasn't there to protect her. I should've been there," explained the senior speedster.

When the new information registered in her brain, Caitlin grimaced and scrubbed the bottom of her face with her right hand while trying to think about something to say. She didn't have to add anything as Jay continued:

"I turned the whole town upside down searching for her. I looked under every rock for countless days," Jay paused to gather himself before continuing, "our Vibe got involved because of me, because I asked for his help. He got caught too, and Galways used both of them as bait for me. If I hadn't messed up in the first place and if I hadn't let Lily down, Vibe would still be alive, and none of you guys would've been involved in this. I'm so sorry about all of this."

His voice was slightly shaking under the emotions, and Caitlin's lips parted away, unable to find the right words for a few moments.

"Jay, I'm... I… I'm so sorry I didn't know."

"If Barry doesn't-" the Earth 3's hero interrupted his sentence to take a deep and slow breath, which allowed him to stop the rising tears in his eyes and control his struggled voice.

The words Garrick wanted to say never found the way out of his lips as acknowledging Barry might not survive was too difficult to pronounce, "it would be all because of me."

What is it with heroes and their tendency to beat themselves up about everything?

"It's not your fault; your apprentice went out there knowing the risks, and there was no way for you to know it was a trap. You could've been trapped with her at that moment, who knows?"

Caitlin paused for a second, waiting for Jay to say something. But when he didn't, she continued, "point is, you can't blame yourself. The Galways are to blame for what happened to you, to her, to Barry and your Cisco. They did this."

"I guess so," Jay answered clearly unconvinced and still looking down at his apprentice.

"Does she have any family left?" Asked Caitlin, jumping on the only other subject she could think of on the spot.

"Yeah, she's pretty close with her parents and with her older brother," instantly answered the speedster, smiling tenderly, "her whole family is pretty supportive of her decision to come train with me. I promised them I would bring her back when Lily went missing."

"She'll be okay. You brought her back, and you'll get her reunited with her family soon," said Caitlin, before looking back at the sound of the door of the medbay that was now opening. Barry was about to come back here, meaning it was time to take Lily, AKA Indigo Lady into surgery.

At the moment, the young woman was sleeping soundly on the bed with the sheet up to over her chest. Her arms were resting over the sheet, a pulse oximeter was attached on her left index and her dirty blond hair with red fire highlights was untied and falling behind her, all the way to the middle of her back.

The young woman's system might have only been under the serum's attack for a very short period, but she had been a prisoner for a moment now. The girl needed rest, nourishment and medicine. Lady Indigo was in dire need of all of this to regain the strength necessary to fight off the virus and the few infected scratches on her neck.

"Now," started Caitlin, getting up from the chair and laying the back of her hand on Jay's cheek to make a quick check on his health, "you go rest while I take care of your friend. You need to take care of that fever; you're still sick."

Coming their way was Barry being pushed on the gurney. As he was approaching, it was hard not to hear his shallow breathing.

What could go wrong with three sick and stubborn speedsters to take care simultaneously?

Before noon, Team Flash had done all they could to help the trio of heroes and take away all the foreign objects in them. Now, all of them could rest a bit.

Worse than the rest of them, by far, was Barry with a dangerously high fever of 108 F (42 C). Only wearing his boxer, the CSI was resting on his left side in the middle of the main medical room and with an IV was inserted in the crook of his right arm. Sensors were all over his body to monitor his critical condition and a cannula nasal was assisting with his laborious breath. If it wasn't enough, most of the dark and reddish scratches and scabs covering most of his neck, face and chest looked infected and were starting to spread on his legs. Plus, an impressive amount of pus was gathering in some of them, mostly in the ones at the base of his neck.

In the bed next to him was Lily, Jay's young apprentice, who, despite a few minor scratches, looked pretty healthy, especially compared to the Scarlet Speedster. Unlike Barry, she wasn't having any problem breathing comfortably on her own and only had a pulse oximeter to keep a close eye on her vitals, plus an IV in her left arm to help her body to recuperate as fast as possible. According to Caitlin, Lily would probably sleep for at least a day, or so, and would need to stay off her feet and keep herself from using her powers for a moment. But, good news, Lily would be okay as long as she would respect her doctor's orders.

The last, but not the least, Jay was taking a nap in the small room on his own and without medical equipment attached to him. A quick check-up, after he woke up in the early evening confirmed his fever was gone and his broken ankle was all healed up.

The second the senior hero was up and cleared to walk around freely, the man was back in the main medbay to sit by the younger speedsters' bedside.

"Zoom-" whispered Barry, opening his glassy eyes halfway and weakly raising his left arm in a faint attempt to hit the closest form next to his bed, Joe.

The key word in his sentence being  _attempt_  as the older man effortlessly restrained the hero's arm with one single hand. This moment wasn't the first time in the last hour Barry had been rambling in his half-conscious state, trapped somewhere between a nightmare and a possible hallucination.

"Shh, it's okay son. Zoom's not here; you're safe. You're going to be okay," whispered Joe to the man half-seated against a pile of pillows behind his back, a position he had been in since after his last seizure just a few moments earlier.

"M' back," added Barry to no one in particular even if nothing was wrong on that part at the moment.

"It's all healed, Barr, remember?" Said Joe, knowing Barry couldn't understand him.

With his other hand, the detective made sure to keep the hero's head turned in his direction, an action that exposed the opposite side of Barry's neck to Caitlin. The doctor was working on piercing an impressive abscess filled with pus that just wouldn't stop growing; it was now half the size of a golf ball. Hopefully, piercing it was going to relieve some pressure and take some pain away from the man who was already struggling to breathe and throwing his head from one side to another in his sleep.

Barry whimpered when the needle penetrating his skin and the greenish liquid started flowing down on the medical gauze but gave no other sign he was aware of his surroundings. Caitlin mumbled an apology as she pressed on each side of the skin to help the pus to evacuate, only stopping an instant at a sudden gulping sound from her patient.

"Need me to put him on his side?" Swiftly asked Joe while looking down at the garbage can he didn't even time to empty since Barry last vomited.

Closing his eyes completely again, Barry surrendered once more to the darkness and stopped gulping.

"I don't think it's necessary. Yet," carefully said Caitlin who still waited a few extra seconds before finishing her delicate task.

Even with the IV in, it was difficult to keep the hero hydrated as he wouldn't stop being sick, even on an empty stomach. If that wasn't enough, the man's blood pressure had started to drop. Not much, for now, but Caitlin was starting to get worried she couldn't stabilize her friend's condition.

"Caitlin, is he getting any better?" Asked Joe, as if he was reading her thoughts.

Sighing, the ice metahuman almost lied, or withdraw some of the truth. Except, if Barry were to keep on that same direction, she wouldn't be able to hide the truth for too long.

"No, he's not," she said while making sure she was staying concentrated on her task of cleaning the now empty abscess to avoid looking at the detective, "but I won't give up on him."

"He shouldn't have gone back," grumbled the man, causing Caitlin to tense up and, a few seconds later, put down her medical supply. Once that was done, she looked directly at the detective, "I'm really sorry. I let him go. It's on me."

Tears rose to her eyes once more at the memory of the last time she spoke to Barry, right after injecting him with V9. She was a doctor; she swore to do no harm, and yet she made more of the most dangerous speed drug they ever encountered and gave it to one of her best friends to poison himself with it.

Taking a deep, shaky, breath, Joe shook his head and corrected himself, "I know you didn't want to hurt him. I'm sorry. I don't even know who I'm angry at..."

Swallowing her pain, Caitlin wiped her suddenly runny nose with her sleeve to avoid contaminating her face with her pus stained gloves, "we'll figure something out, I promise," she said, biting her lips and trying to convince herself more than her interlocutor.

Redirecting his attention to his own apprentice, Jay laid the back of his hand on her cheek; she was a tad warmer to the touch than earlier. The numbers on the monitors behind confirmed it; she had a slight fever, but nothing alarming nor surprising. Caitlin had warned him it was probably going to happen while the girl's exhausted body was still fighting the virus.

"Be strong, Olivia," whispered Jay to his protégé without realizing he called her by her full name instead of the short version of it, "I promised your brother I would bring you back."

How could he ever think that having an apprentice to take over, eventually, would make his life easier and safer? Mrs. Olivia Woodward was going to be the death of his way before his retirement plans could really start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's (sort of) back! Let's hear it about that last paragraph; are you surprised? Happy? Shocked? Been excited for months to see your reactions, simply cannot wait to hear you all!(!)
> 
> For those who don't know who she is: in my trilogy (where Flashpoint never happened; Wounds of the Soul/Wounds of the Spirit/Long Way home), Olivia was a metahuman that Barry met in France when he was on a quest to destroy the organization that brainwashed him. Olivia saved his life, multiple times, and sacrificed everything to protect him and get him back home. She basically became Barry's little sister.
> 
> For those who do know her; the whole trilogy might have happened in an entirely different universe, but I figured she earned her way into the multiverse with doppelgangers existing all over ;) So, even on this version of Earth 1, there might be a whole different version of the Olivia you saw in the trilogy ;)
> 
> On a side note; taking a small Christmas break from writing and I'll try updating again around Jan. 11th. In between, you'll have a new Daughter's Nightmare chapter. Plus, if you don't know Olivia and wanna meet the other version of her, she first appeared in my story ''Wounds of the Spirit'', 17th chapter 'till the end, and is heavily present in the whole sequel ''The long way home''


	18. Darkest Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! You missed that story(and me)? ;) Just so you know, we're closing to the end and there's going to be about 21 chapters to the story, unless I cut the ending of Chap.21 to make a short epilogue. We'll see, stay tuned!

A trail of yellow flashes of lightning on the final stretch before the Galways' lab was the only clue for the people inside that a speedster was approaching. Well, not the Galways' lab. Scratch that. There were no longer two of them; it was Daniel Galway's lab once again, and it didn't look too good. In fact, the security was down to old fences filled with holes. At that point, they were merely playing a decorative purpose, and the entry was only being kept closed by a chain and a lock. A mere handful of guards was circulating around the small building, and none of them were keeping an eye on the entry point. The building they were securing was barely one-third of the size it used to be and only had one floor, plus the basement.

Or, it was more accurate to say that the alternate version of the lab was three times his actual size. Semantics.

Things were back to the way they were before Jay was forced to save Polly many, many, years ago.

Entering the basement, where he, Lily and this Earth's Cisco got trapped a whole week ago, Jay finally stopped. The senior speedster was back inside the tiny, smelly and dirty lab with brown walls. A few tables and testing equipment were placed all over; used and cleans syringes were behind Jay, and there were a few testing tubes a little further back in the room, next to the sole microscope.

Under these circumstances, it was a real miracle Daniel managed to create anything, especially a serum that could control speedsters. As much as Jay hated to admit it, being a scientist himself, he had to give it to him; Daniel was smart and resourceful. Speaking of, the voice of the last remaining Galway boomed behind and let's say he wasn't thrilled.

"Where's my wife?" Daniel Galway growled, anger rising with every word. "You weren't supposed to come back without her!"

The evil man was standing in a washed white lab coat over a black sweater and old jeans with holes, completed with messed up dirty hair. Daniel had seen better days.

"It's over, Daniel, give it up," firmly affirmed Jay, turning around and standing tall in front of his adversary.

"I'm ordering you to go back and bring her," shouted Daniel again with all the authority in the world.

Slowly, the possibility that, for some reason, the serum wasn't working anymore on his prey and that Jay wasn't about to change the time for him crawled his way inside Daniel's mind. Slowly, Polly's widower moved around the hero while keeping his distance. Despite the sudden change of strength in the balance, there was no fear in the man's eyes.

"Your wife isn't coming back, but you're coming with me for what you've done," commanded the speedster.

Jay's calm and composed demeanour and tone of voice were harder to keep than what the appearances were suggesting; this Earth's Flash was boiling inside at the thought of all the harms that man brought, mainly to Barry and Lily. Well, technically, it was Polly who did most of the damages. The worst part about it was that she was the one who operated on both of them and these crimes would be left unpunished.

Struck by a sudden thought, Jay froze; was it a mistake to bring both young speedsters back to Earth 1? Since Polly never survived, she never could've hurt them or put a pump inside their body. So, were there any chances Lily and Barry would've gone back to normal when time adjusted itself? While taking Barry and Lily to the people who had the best chances to care for them had been done with the best of intention, Jay wondered if that was the right course of action. Doing so, bringing them on another Earth, the hero ensured they would be unaffected by the next change in the timeline.

Too late to think about that. What was done was done.

A tingling sensation suddenly spread in the speedster's body; the one Jay would get every time his connection with the speed force would be severed. Indeed, he couldn't feel his powers running like electricity in his body anymore. But, yet, the speedster stayed still and kept on studying his adversary who stopped next to the main desk, hands in his pockets.

"I think that belongs to me," said Jay in the same commanding tone with his head tilting to point the object reflecting the dim light and laying on the old and dirty, dark brown, table.

There was his used hat. It was just lying on the furniture like a hunting trophy. Both men's stare locked into each other, silently defying and inviting the other one to make a move.

"I don't think you understand who's in control," stated Daniel while calmly taking his hands out of his pockets and opening his desk's first drawer.

Daniel had to know his adversary was powerless; if Jay weren't, the speedster would've attacked.

"Do I? Give yourself up, now," commander the senior speedster again. "Don't make me repeat myself."

The tension was palpable as both men kept mentally assessing each other's strengths and guessing the next move.

With one swift and discrete movement, one that Jay saw but didn't have time to do a thing about it, Daniel grabbed an object out of his desk and pointed it at the man. A gun. A 9mm to be precise.

"You're coming with me," ordered the last remaining Galway, waving his weapon at his enemy.

Jay nervously glanced at the door. It wasn't how things were supposed to unfold.

For a second, Daniel also took a quick peek at the door. Something was up on his side too, apparently, considering the instant frown and the quick full 360 degrees turn on himself from Polly's widower when all the light went down, and all electronic devices stopped functioning with a crackling sound. Whatever was happening was clearly not his doing.

Meanwhile, Jay's shoulders visually relaxed and the hero didn't flinch the slightest when a guard's face suddenly crashed into the small, already cracked door's window.

"What's go-" Daniel started shouting between his teeth.

Deciding enough was enough, the cruel man pressed his fingers around his weapon's trigger. Detonation boomed in the small room and the bullet went flying and breaking the air in his straight trajectory toward his powerless target. Or, was Jay really powerless?

Without breaking a sweat, Jay skilfully dodged his way out of harm's way, moved closer and grabbed the gun with incredible speed.

"Someone could get hurt," said the hero with lightings sparkling over his muscular body before breaking the gun in two.

The room door opened and revealed a masked purple form; Ralph. The Elongated Man was breathing a tad heavily and proudly holding a small and squared electronic device, one that had been hurriedly put together, in his hands. Lying unconscious at his feet were two guards.

"Took you long enough," commented Jay, smirking before punching his adversary in the jaw, efficiently sending him on the ground, when Daniel tried to counter-attack even if he was the one being powerless at the moment.

"Ran into some trouble on the way. And you're welcome!" Protested Ralph, laughing and panting simultaneously.

After being caught once thanks to Daniel's power-dampening device, Jay figured it would be better to come prepared. He made sure to embark another hero on his journey, one with a portable, made on the spot, EMP's device. A device that would probably only work once, so they couldn't risk using it without knowing if whatever Daniel was using was with him in the laboratory.

Considering how it might be risky to activate it in their enemy face while being powerless, the team of heroes at S.T.A.R. Labs decided to give it to Ralph who would be staying and hiding in the back.

Jay smiled. "Good job," he acknowledged, "it's over."

First thing first. Jay walked around the sleeping form of Daniel Galway and went to grab his helmet on the desk before putting it on his head. Tipping his hat with his hand, Jay smiled widely at Ralph Dibny. Barry's life might still be in the balance, but at least the troubled times in this universe were over and done.

Quickly, the duo made sure to hand over their prisoner to the police with an exhaustive list of his crimes and went back to Earth 1. Appearing in the hallway just outside the cortex, Ralph and Jay instantly started hearing shouts and struggles accompanied by metallic sounds.

"LET ME GO," shouted a feminine voice; a voice that was unfamiliar to the Elongated Man.

Not taking the time to answer to the worried glance that got sent at him by his companion, Jay took off running, knowing who the voice belonged to. It was Lily's voice. Sure enough, an angry speedster was thrashing in her bed and her metallic power dampening cuff was hitting her bed frame multiple times.

"You mind?" Growled Cisco to his doctor friend. His arm muscles were contracting under the efforts of keeping the tied-up girl down on the bed.

Apparently, she was still under the Galways' spell.

Leaning against the door of the main medical room, Joe was closely observing the scene and pondering whether or not his help was needed. His unconscious mind was hoping the team wouldn't need his assistance as he couldn't bring himself to leave his son's side.

"Almost there," replied Caitlin to Cisco while rushing back to the bed with a syringe, "hold her down," she instructed.

With a swift and powerful movement, Lily freed her opposite arm, the limb that wasn't tied to the bed out of Vibe's grasp and grazed his cheeks. Being sick and powerless wasn't stopping her from fighting back; she was feisty. Not that the team expected anything else out of Jay's apprentice.

Straightening his back, Joe almost joined the group but a rush of wind passed him and disappeared just as fast, replaced by the Flash who was wearing his iconic winged helmet. Swiftly, Jay's strong arms took hold of his apprentice and pinned her down.

"Calm down, Lily, you're okay. You're okay," he gently whispered to her, keeping her as still as possible while Caitlin injected the sedative straight in her neck.

A few moments later, she stopped struggling and sunk back in the darkness. Everyone in the room sighed in relief.

"She should be down for a while now." Caitlin declared, putting down the syringe and wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

"How was the mission?" Inquired Cisco, looking up at Ralph first, then at the speedster.

"We nailed it!" Ralph informed proudly, puffing his chest. "Daniel's not going to bother anyone ever again."

Happy about hearing the first good news of the day, Caitlin smiled and nodded. Joe took a deep breath, but didn't relax; he was instead struggling to control his emotions that were bowling with anger. Daniel's rampage was over, but it wasn't going to change the past. It wasn't going to change what this man did to Barry. Joe would've given a lot to get the chance to punch the Galways, both of them, in the face as hard as he possibly could.

"How's Barry?" Asked Jay, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.

Yesterday, the doctor said the next 48 hours would be critical. That was a bit less than 30 hours ago now and unless something happened that he didn't know about, there hadn't been a single improvement in the man's condition.

"His temperature is down again," answered Caitlin, looking down and putting her hands inside her coat's pockets.

Not that long ago, that news would've been an excellent sign and a reason to celebrate considering how Barry's fever went into crazy high territories, but now? Now Barry's temperature was dropping like a rock falling off a cliff and going under, way under, normal temperature range. The Flash's feet, hands, arms, and legs were starting to feel cold thanks to the decrease of his blood circulation. His increasing paleness was also due to the same reason. Things weren't looking great. By the time they reached the evening, hope grew even thinner.

So thin that eventually, some people started losing hope.

"Caitlin doesn't want to be disturbed," informed Iris who was leaning against the Cortex's main desk as Jay was passing by and heading in the medbay direction.

Right next to her, sitting, was both her father and Cisco. All of them had been kicked out of the room.

"I need to talk to her, it's important, and it can't wait long," answered the speedster who stopped feet away from the door with his right feet still positioned in front of him, ready to keep going again.

"Caitlin said she wanted to analyse her last test results," Joe added. "She needed some quiet time on her own to concentrate."

Cisco shrugged from his chair. "It's been a while now that she's been in there. If you wanna risk it, you could, but we warned you."

Nodding and understanding the risk of disturbing Caitlin, Jay pushed the door just enough for his own frame to pass. The doctor was sitting behind her desk, back turned on her patient. Her elbows were resting on the desk, her shoulders were slightly slumped and her entire back was shaking, bad. That was until the noise and movement behind jostled her and caused her to awkwardly jump to her feet. Stumbling on the chair, Caitlin barely caught the corner of her desk to stay upright.

"Wh't-" she said, looking for her words and not expecting someone to show up after asking time alone with her patient.

Whatever she's been doing, it wasn't analysing samples or working on some other treatments. Well, maybe she did just that at first, but now? From the dry tear tracks and the new ones still filled with wet cascades, it was clear that she wasn't doing tests anymore.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you," the hero apologized, his voice soothing. "I needed to talk to you. How are you?"

And the stupidest question of the day award goes to…

Of course, she wasn't okay. Far from it. She wouldn't be crying on her own if she was. Did Caitlin ask to be alone with her patient to really do and analyse tests, or was it just to break down and cry?

"I don't know how much more he can take this," she sobbed in response.

No need to glance behind to understand and confirm what she was talking about. No matter where they were in the room, they could hear Barry's shallow and uneven breaths that would stop for a few seconds at the time before coming back in gasps. More than that, it was getting increasingly difficult for the CSI to swallow which also caused his breathing to sound congested a bit from the build-up in the back of his throat. Hard to tell how long he would still be able to breathe on his own.

"I don't think I can help him-" admitted Caitlin with shaking lips.

To think about it was one thing but to hear Caitlin, of all people, admitting it out loud was another one. Jay could feel his heart breaking into millions of pieces. Soon, starting to cover up Barry's struggling sounds, were the increasingly loud sobs of the doctor.

"Maybe we should start calling people if they want to be there whe-" unable to finish her sentence, Caitlin gasped and put her hands in front of her mouth and nose.

Unable to control the itch in his arms, Jay opened them and wrapped them against the woman; part of him didn't want to encourage her to give up, as he wasn't ready yet, but he wasn't going to let her suffer on her own either. After a few anxious moments, the speedster gently pushed her away.

He came here for a reason.

"Can we decrease Lily's sedative? I need to talk to her, now."

The ice metahuman wiped her tear, frowning in confusion. "Why?"

Barry was dy-

There were other priorities.

"It's important. I just need to," he insisted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil laugh* Who's happy the story's back and Jay took care of Galway?
> 
> I have a feeling some of you, who have read Long Way Home, knows where this is going. Are you guys fearing for Olivia's safety? Stay tuned for next week's chapter!


	19. Silver Lining

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a day late, was super busy yesterday night. Enjoy!

Gently, Caitlin took the IV out of the sleeping speedster's form who didn't even flinch. Medically speaking, there was nothing wrong with Olivia; all her vitals were back into normal range, and there was only a few remaining, pink coloured and healing, scabs on her neck. Well, she wasn't entirely back to normal; she still needed lots of rest and sleep. But, other than that, she was in the clear and that's why the IV filed with the sedative was the only equipment left attached to her. Well, attached until one moment ago.

The only other medication still in the young speedster's system was the last given dose of the serum Caitlin made to take away all remaining organisms that might still be at work to influence her actions. It's been long enough; Lily should be fully aware and in control now, but who knew?

"You're sure you don't need us around, just in case she-" started to inquire the doctor, only to get interrupted.

"It's okay, I got this," Jay assured, looking straight at the young speedster from his earth as he answered. He had this.

Considering how he's been pushing his body to stay awake and alert at the bedside of the younger heroes, Jay was definitely in need of a long rest. But, exhausted or not, he was still a speedster, and Lily was still wearing her power dampening cuffs; she shouldn't be a problem to restrain if she still had a fight in her. The senior speedster had no doubt he would be able to contain her anger, if necessary.

"Can I have some time alone, now?" gently asked Jay which earned him a nod from the doctor who moved out of the room.

Walking out and arriving at the door, Caitlin passed between Ralph and Cisco who were curiously observing the scene in silence.

Considering how well the Earth 3's hero apprentice was doing, compared to Barry whose health was quickly degrading, it was curious, to say the least, to see Jay so anxious to see and talk to her. What was going on in the crimson comet's head? What was he planning? With one swift nudge in her best friend's rib cage, Caitlin indicated to Cisco, and indirectly to Ralph with the same motion, to get out of the room. The Earth 3's speedster had things to discuss, apparently, and it sounded important.

After the room had been cleared out, leaving only Lily and Jay in it, it didn't take long for the tired eyelids to blink a few times before confused eyes slowly opened up to the word. Confusion was written all over the bright and piercing green eyes that started moving from right to left and left to right before finally settling on Jay's anxious face.

She wasn't trying to attack him in any way; that was a good sign,

"Lily? You with me?" He gently asked.

The beautiful eyes moved around once more, settling this time on her wrist that was secured to the bed frame and started weakly pulling against it. The pause was almost long enough for Flash to ask the same words again, but his apprentice spoke first.

"Jay?" She rasped, before turning her head around and finally making eye contact, "what's happening?"

"You're okay now; we're safe on Earth 1 with friends. What's the last thing you remember?" He asked. His soothing voice tone was calming the young lady more than his actual words.

The disoriented eyes blinked again and looked at the white ceiling, unseeing, while her consciousness drifted off into the last memories she could recollect. After a moment, her attention turned back to her surroundings; analysing everything around before looking down at her body and finally noticing the comfy S.T.A.R. Lab sweatshirt she found herself in.

Slowly, the young lady moisturized her lips before talking, "I think there w-"

Struck by a sudden thought, her eyes opened widely and her palms pushed against the semi-hard mattress, wincing out of soreness while she was quickly working herself in a seated position, which prompted Jay to assist. At least she tried to get as comfortable and sit as natural as possible, which wasn't that easy considering how she was still tied to the side of the bed.

"Hey, take it easy, you're okay."

Barely hearing what her mentor told us and unable to keep her rising concern at bay, Lily shook her head and spoke again, "there was another person, another speedster. I think we were fighting; I'm not sure wh-"

A hand landing on her right shoulder interrupted her speech and prompted her to move her glance toward Jay who spoke again:

"He's here, he's-" The man stopped himself mid-sentence, unable to find the right words.

Barry's what? Okay? Far from it. But he was here, that part was the truth.

"He's in the other room," continued Jay before swiftly changing the subject, "how do you feel?"

Lily eyebrows furrowed in concentration before mentally scanning her whole body in search of all possible discomfort; "I think so...I'm just really tired and sore," she finally said, unable to contain the yawn that followed and confirmed her words.

As she was speaking, Jay took the initiative to grab the metal cuff key on the bedside table and bring it to the device; Lily was herself now. Or, let's say that the chances of her being back to normal were over 99%. Suddenly remembering what Caitlin left for the young girl, Jay took the glass on the table and winced in sympathy at the sight of the thick and greenish mixture.

"There, I was supposed to give you this. It will help reboot your system. It was made specifically for speedsters, but the taste left to be desired."

Lily rose her eyebrows and hesitantly took the glass being handed to her, silently questioning the components of that weird looking beverage. The young lady was wishing her mentor was about to interrupt her and says he was joking about drinking that before the glass would make it to her lips.

"Trust me, it works great," assured Jay, having tested it himself yesterday; Caitlin sure had her fair knowledge of speedsters. They needed to find someone like that on his Earth.

Olivia's obvious struggle to keep it in, once the first gulp had passed her lips, was visible and almost amusing for Jay who cracked a smile.

The joy from that light and fun earlier moment wasn't going to last long; they had other issues to take care of, and the young speedster had many questions.

"What happened?" She asked once she was done swallowing half the glass, "how did we get out?" Everything is a bit of a blur."

"Thanks to our Vibe's warning, this Earth's Flash and his team got alerted and mounted a rescue to take us out. They got captured and almost lost their lives trying to save you, and me," quickly summarized Jay to the girl.

"A real hero's work," quietly answered back Olivia, widening a tired smile and taking another sip.

"Look, Lily," said Jay, slowly and carefully picking her words.

His instant change of tone had Lily swallowing her mouthful and switching into a more focus and serious mood. Something was up; she knew her mentor well enough to know when he wasn't in a kidding mood.

"What's wrong?" By reflex, she passed her red and blonde hair over her left shoulder.

"It's Barry, the speedster you fought and the one who mounted a rescue for us, he's in bad shape," started explaining the senior speedster, not liking where he was going, "he's…"

Lily nodded her understanding and interrupted Jay, "how bad?"

It wasn't like Jay to be so hesitant. It was evident this Barry person was a friend and someone Jay cared about. Someone who was probably in need of urgent help and help was something she could provide. Or, try to. Determination started shining brightly in the young lady's eyes despite her fatigue.

"Bad. The doctor in charge of his health doesn't think he'll make it," he bluntly admitted, before taking a pause knowing his apprentice knew exactly where he was heading and what he was asking of her. It was risky for Olivia's health, "his organs are starting to fail, and he's barely breathing on his own anymore."

"I understand," acknowledged Olivia again before closing her mouth and keeping it tightly closed the instant she was done speaking. "We have to do this," she continued without hesitation and without needing more explication. Her straightforward attitude and willingness to jump into the fire without blinking was exactly was Jay was afraid of.

"Lily, I'm asking you to consider it, not to go in blind. I can't oblige you to do this; it's going to be dangerous and tricky, and you know that as well as I do," warned the senior speedster, "we can't lose you. We can't lose both of you."

Lifting her right arm and grimacing at the movement, damn she really was sore everywhere, Lily reached out for her mentor's forearm and made sure Jay made eye contact with her before speaking up again, gently.

"I understand, I won't be reckless. But this Flash risked everything to get us out and saved both of us. And, I'm not deaf, nor blind, I can see that you care about that person. I have to try."

Instead of an answer, she got a bittersweet smile and blank face staring back at her.

"What?" She asked after a few awkward seconds.

"I'm just proud of the hero you're becoming, not that I had any doubts you would," quietly answered her mentor.

Slightly blushing, Lily ignored the tingling sensation in her heavy arms and threw the blankets away from her legs, interrupting Jay that was about to ask her if she was even feeling up to get out of bed, "let's go see him."

The young woman stumbled the second her feet hit the ground, but she caught herself on the side of the bed. The commotion resonated all the way to the adjacent room and caused Cisco and Ralph to rush in there before the woman was done finding her balance.

"Oh," said the engineer, stopping in his tracks with his arms raised and ready to act, just in case. Instead of finding an angry and mind-controlled speedster, he found the young apprentice awake, untied and on her feet with Jay supporting her slightly. "Hello?" he added, waving awkwardly at her.

"Is she-" started questioning Ralph who entered the room side by side with Vibe, only to get interrupted by Caitlin who rushed past them, uncaring about jostling both of them in her wake.

"Hey! What are you doing out of bed?" Accused Caitlin while glaring at Jay, the one person she hoped would be responsible enough to make sure Olivia would take it easy.

Lily's lips parted to say something, but no words came out.

"We might have a way to save Barry," directly said Earth 3's Flash.

"What?" answered both Cisco and Ralph, shock and surprise taking over their features.

Wait a second, time out. Let's rewind this just a second; since when did Barry need saving? He wasn't dying, right? Right?

In a simultaneous movement that would've been funny under any other circumstance, both men turned around to look at Caitlin who just stared blankly at the speedster, unaware of the suspicions that were risen by these last words.

"H-h-ho-how?" She stuttered, her mind desperately wanting to hang on to any piece of hope there was, without losing her rational mind.

"I can," shyly explained Lily, gently pushing Jay away to stand tall on her own, "or I think I might be able to; just allow me to try."

"How?" Reiterated the Ice Meta.

"Just let her, we'll show you," said Jay.

"Excuse me; what the hell is going on?" Loudly asked Ralph, loud enough to cover all the other sounds.

Caitlin sighed; there was no keeping hidden the secret of the rapid deterioration of Barry's health any longer. Why would she think it was a good idea in the first place? Secrets had always been their thing. Anyhow, it probably was for the best to let everyone knows the truth.

Sceptical, but ready to try everything, the doctor allowed it. They had nothing to lose.

Ten minutes later, Lily entered the medical room while taking back behind her ear a rebellious blond lock of hair that avoided being trapped in the newly made braid descending all the way 'till the middle of the woman's back. Once that was done, the young speedster grabbed her suit's gloves that got handed to her by her mentor who suddenly appeared in the room, making a full stop accompanied with his usual bolt of lightings all over his body. It was only then, when she put them on, that Caitlin finally really noticed the strange electronic device placed on her right hand.

"What's that for?" Inquired the doctor, protectively standing next to her patient's bed and listening to his uneven and incredibly weak breathing pattern.

At this point, Barry's kidneys were about to flinch and give in at any moment. If that wasn't enough already, Caitlin was also expecting the sick hero's lungs to stop working altogether, sooner rather than later.

A glance up was all she got as an answer from the young Lily who quickly verified that everything was in working order.

"You'll see," mysteriously said Jay before gesturing toward the chair he positioned as close as possible to the bed, just next to where Caitlin was, "go get there."

The thin but robust form of the young lady moved to the uncomfortable white chair and cracked her delicate fingers together before sitting down. Her eyes scanned the sleeping man that was severely struggling to breath and her goggles wearing hands moved to his chest, placing them between the sensors and equipment and landing on a scab. There weren't many choices considering how the hero's skin was covered by them.

"You can really heal him? Just like that?" Asked Ralph, snapping his fingers as he finished his sentence to add more intensity to it.

"It's not really healing," tried to explain Jay, not wanting to raise false hopes, "it's more like a transfer of her own fast-healing energy, and speedforce, which boost the person's system and allowed them to heal faster. Way faster."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Asked Vibe, frowning and looking down at the young lady.

"It can be," admitted the older speedster. "We're just hoping she can stabilize him enough before her own life is endangered," he said, brutally honest.

The tension was palpable in the room filled with anxious friends and family desperately hoping for a miracle cure, whatever it was. Even a fly could be heard through all the heavy silence.

Closing her eyes, the young lady stayed silent for many seconds before opening them again, accompanied by a deep breath.

"He's very, very weak," she commented, not that she needed to considering how Caitlin spilled the beans to the whole team, and taking her hands off of Barry, "I'm not sure I can save him."

Caitlin sent an anxious glare at Jay, but the senior speedster wasn't looking at her; he was staring at his apprentice seated in front of him. His hand landed on her shoulder, "just do your best, that's all we're asking of you."

Nodding her understatement and slightly rubbing her hand just over her eyes to fight off the tingling sensation due to her fatigue, Lily took a moment to gather her mysterious powers, the ones everyone was waiting to see. After sharing one last anxious glance with Jay, she put back both her hands onto Barry's shirtless chest.

It was with fascination that everyone glued their eyes on the beautiful blue energy that build up around the lady speedsters' forearms first, then around her hands, and then moved into her patient before slowly enveloping Barry's chest. Under the mysterious treatment, Barry's tensed features relaxed and, maybe it was just wishful thinking, but his friends could've sworn they saw his breathing get more comfortable, which caused the same effect on everyone.

The only one who didn't have his whole focus oriented at the sick hero was Jay, closely studying Lily's face on which struggle and discomfort were obviously showing and growing with every passing second. A single drop of sweat appeared and dripped down on her cheek at the same time red light started slowly flashing on her gauntlet's electronic device.

"Lily?" Asked Jay while firmly grabbing the woman's right arm.

A mere moment later, when the gap between each flash of the red light on the device grew shorter and shorter, Lily sharply opened her eyes and gasped dramatically, like a drowning victim finally reaching the surface. Good thing she was seated or she would've probably fallen on her ass considering how her back lost all of its strengths, and she awkwardly slumped on the furniture. While Ralph, Iris, and Cisco just stood stunned and unsure about what happened and Joe rushed close to his son, Caitlin went to Lily's side.

Definitely not surprised by the young woman's reaction, Jay picked up a blanket not too far from the bed, one he spotted before this whole thing started, and swiftly draped it on Lily's shoulders.

"Easy, there, easy," said Jay, noting the drops of blood falling from Lily's nose.

"Barry?" She weakly rasped instead, completely ignoring the crimson red liquid and staring straight at the still unconscious man as Caitlin moved her attention back at the monitor.

Questions about what just happened could wait for a moment or two.

It had to work; Barry just had to be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave your comments, only two more chapters to go. Will I be nice enough to give a happy ending to everyone this time? ;)


	20. Welcome gift

"How are you feeling?" Inquired Caitlin while walking back in the smallest medical room where Lily was sitting on the side of her bed with her legs dangling off the edge without touching the ground.

An impressively long and loud yawn was the first answer the doctor got, but it wasn't a surprising reaction considering how that poor girl looked like she was about to fall asleep again even after having been out for most of the night. It's had now been just over 48 hours since Jay brought Barry and Lily back and the Scarlet Speedster was still desperately clinging to life with everything he had. Speaking of Jay, the Crimson Comet was silently standing next to the girl's bed.

"Exhausted," simply answered Lily, stating the obvious. "I have a headache too, but nothing unusual. How's Barry?"

"Your glucose levels and most of your vitals are still pretty low, but none of them are in the danger zone," informed Caitlin while taping on her tablet and swiping from one page to another inside the medical report to double check the results at the same time she was telling them.

Once finishing that task, the doctor looked up straight at the young woman's eyes. Lily was a little pale, but she should recover entirely with a bit of rest. That was if the young speedster would be willing this time to take it easy and not push her powers, either one of them. There was no need for an extensive analysis of her abilities and a medical degree to figure out that healing people in her exhausted state could become dangerous and real fast. One thing for sure, it was impressive to see someone with two sets of abilities, even if it technically wasn't entirely a different power.

"How long did you have your powers?" Asked Caitlin before looking down once more at the numbers while waiting for an answer. The scientist needed to make sure she didn't miss a thing.

"A little over four years," admitted Olivia with her eyes looking at the ceiling for a short instant as she made the maths in her head. "I was helping my mom do the inventory in her medical clinic when a wave of Dark matter hit me," she recalled.

"How long did it take you to realize you could heal people up?" Caitlin questioned, letting go of her tablet and putting it on the desk.

Olivia winced as she answered, submerged by the old memories. "It wasn't that long after I got hit that I discovered what I could do. It was not that long after my older brother got badly hurt."

"What happened?" The doctor inquired almost instantly, before taking a moment to think. It probably wasn't nice memories, but her curiosity got the best of her

"He… he got shot during a bank robbery caused by a Metahuman, a couple of months later," recollected Lily as her fingernails unconsciously dug into the mattress under her.

"Ho-"

"He ended up paralysed, from the waist down."

"Lily, I'm so-" started to say Caitlin before realizing she had no idea where she was heading with that sentence. What was she supposed to add? That she was sorry for her brother and sorry for forcing the young lady to revive these memories? But she got cut short by Lily's hand that swiftly dismissed the issue and the building tension.

"It's okay. My brother's fine now. I remember wishing so badly I could help ease his pain and sorrows and that's when my hands started glowing the very first times, a few weeks after the incident," Lily continued with a bittersweet smile on her face. "It just took a few tries to understand how these abilities were functioning. He was the first person I helped after getting my powers."

Visibly relaxing, Caitlin smiled warmly and, switching from doctor to friend, approached the bed. "And what happened next? Did your brother?"

"As I said, it took me a while to get a hang on these powers, but I managed to heal his back." Proudly said the young speedster, straightening herself with proud.

The doctor's eyes brightened with curiosity, medical curiosity, and a bit of excitement. "Did you really-" She started before putting most of her weight on her right leg and waiting for the rest. She had seen a speedster, aka Barry, heal from a broken back, but could a regular person recover from that?

"Yeah, he's walking again," Jay's apprentice assured before putting her left hand before her mouth to yawn again.

"That's incredible. You're incredible," remarked Caitlin. But she probably shouldn't be too surprised considering what she already saw, especially since what she witnessed were diminished abilities due to Olivia's worn out state.

"Thanks," quietly answered the speedster, blushing a tad.

"Your parents must be proud."

Lily nodded, but Jay was faster than her at answering, "they are. Very."

"It did take a very long while for my speed to start manifesting."

"All right," continued Caitlin, switching back to her doctor mode just as fast as she got out of it, "now, you need to rest."

"Uh hum, I will," mumbled Lily while nodding unconvincingly like a little girl badly trying to hide her future shenanigans from her parents.

"I'm serious," growled Caitlin menacingly. Slightly turning her head around, she glared at Jay for some support before looking again at Olivia. "if you keep pushing yourself like that it could get dangerous for you."

"I'll make sure she rests," Jay assured her, having stayed silent at the women's side for most of the conversation. His arms were crossed on his chest, and he was wearing a standard green shirt and a black vest over it.

His answer instantly earned a quiet thank you.

"How's Barry?" Asked the man, reiterating Lily's earlier question.

"He's-" Caitlin knew that question was coming, but she still got caught off guard by it. "He was stable last night, which is a lot more than I could say for the previous day." Her voice was slow and hesitant, especially toward the end. Her attitude caused Flash to frown.

"I sense there's a but coming-" trailed off the speedster, inviting the doctor to continue.

Sighing, Caitlin looked down a tad, just enough to avoid eye contact.

"But… He's not showing any real sign of improvement at the moment. We'll have to wait and see if he gets better, or worse, before tomorrow...We'll leave you to rest." Caitlin quickly finished before she could receive protests. Turning around before the sentence was over, she grabbed back her tablet and moved out of the room.

During the following day and a half, the team did the only thing they could; they waited. And waited. Sure enough, Barry's condition swiftly started deteriorating again to the point one of his kidneys stopped working. If that wasn't bad enough, Barry even stopped breathing for a few seconds before his lungs kicked in again. Unable to wait any longer, fearing she was about to be forced to intubate anytime soon, Caitlin yielded. As the night was settling in outside, she allowed Lily to give another shot at healing their friend while she was still recovering herself.

But, this time, there was a slight difference; Caitlin insisted for the young apprentice to wear mental activity sensors on each side of her head and to have her vital signs monitored during the whole process. Plus, the doctor put a pulse oximeter at the tip of her right hand's finger that was showing out of her half-finger gauntlets to keep an eye on her pulse, blood pressure and oxygen levels in her system.

These conditions weren't a choice for Lily if she wanted to risk her health again to try and help the man who plunged into action without thinking of himself to rescue her, and her Earth. On the bright side, her new attempt worked. Or, at least, it renewed Barry's strength and kicked started his kidney again. Both of these elements were a good sign in their quest to extend the lifespan of the CSI's damaged body. The real question was; for how long? It was hard to tell, if not impossible.

It was beyond words how frustrating that whole situation was; they were running after their own tall at that point. The time it was taking for Olivia to regenerate was the time it was taking for Barry to come back to the same critical condition he was before his last treatment. Long story short; he wasn't getting better in the long term

Once again, as Lily was resting and regenerating from her second attempt at helping Barry, The Flash started growing worse. How long could they keep this up? How long could Jay's apprentice keep this up? No need to be a world-renowned surgeon to guess that the lady's system might not be able to keep this routine forever.

The whole team took turns to ensure that there was always someone at Barry's bedside, even in the middle of the night. It was torture to sit there and listen in almost complete silence to Barry's grunts of pain and difficult breaths while being unable to do a thing about it. Other than waiting, hoping and praying, not much could be done. During that time, Jay ran back to his Earth to find Lily's parents and brother to assure them the young lady had been found and was now resting and recuperating in a specialized facility.

Part of Jay almost waited longer before delivering the news as it was worrying him to see how much heart the girl was putting into trying to take care of Barry, despite the risks for her health. But it was cruel at this point to keep her family in the dark any longer. Hopefully, a happy ending was waiting at the corner. And, if push came to shove, he would stop her before Lily could go too far. As much as the senior speedster cared about Barry, he couldn't afford to lose them both.

Bare feet silently moved, or more like sneaked, outside the small and older medical room just after midnight, and  _coincidentally_  just after Caitlin walked out of the medbay. Lily's bright blonde and fire braid danced with the woman's swift movement to quickly hid her face behind the door frame when she thought she heard Caitlin coming back. False alarm, the doctor wasn't there. She was probably going to be gone for a few moments to grab some coffee or, to take a bathroom break.

Either way, Barry's room was in the clear, and it wasn't going to stay that way for very long. Looking around and on the cortex's main desk with her piercing green eyes, Lily quickly spotted the one item she was searching for; her gauntlets. That was lucky. She feared she would've to search for them a lot longer and even considered proceeding without them. Who knew what her gauntlets were doing there in the first place? Last time Lily used them, it was in the medical room to treat Barry.

Speaking of, Olivia was still exhausted about that, and her whole body was hurting like a herd of wild horses ran her over, but she had to try again despite Caitlin explicit orders for her to rest for at least another day before using either one of her powers.

"Going somewhere?" Asked a male voice on her left when she arrived at the desk and extended her hand like a ninja to try and grab her goal.

What the-

Lily's right hand flew over her heart as she nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning around, she found herself facing Cisco who was leaning against the wall of the Cortex's entrance. Damn it. Busted.

"How long have you been there?" She questioned as she was feeling her heart racing under her palm.

"I've been waiting for you to show up: I figured you would try to sneak around our backs," said Vibe who had his fingers playing with... with whatever was in his hands. It looked like a small piece of costume.

"Sneak-" started slowly repeating Lily.

 _Come on, think,_ she told herself.

"Of course I wasn't!" She protested, unconvincingly, "I was just trying to get some water."

"Uh huh. With that?" Accused back Cisco, frowning and raising his right hand to point at the speedster's gauntlets which allowed Lily to see what was in his hands; it was a purple and blue mask.

It was a beautiful mask that resembled the one Jesse Quick wore, but that was going all around the head and had a small piece of tech next to where the right ear was going to be.

"What's that?" Inquired Lily instead of denying her earlier actions; there was no point doing that anymore. Plus, the object had her curiosity peaking.

Cisco's hard features softened a tad as he handed the mask to her.

"It's yours, take it. I did it for you based on the information Caitlin collected on how your powers are working."

"I don... don't understand?" Whispered the speedster, reaching out to touch to soft material without grabbing it completely.

"I've figured out by now that stubbornness is like speedster's second superpower. So, as I said, I knew you would come back and try again despite Caitlin's order." Added Vibe with his lips twitching, halfway through a smile, "come on, take it."

The man's smile was contagious enough to make Lily snort; Cisco was right about that one.

"How does it work?" She asked, finally taking a hold on the new piece of costume.

"The device that goes behind the ear-" started to explain Cisco while pointing at the little box, "-will stimulate the part la of your brain responsible for your powers and help regulate the amount of energy you're using every time you heal someone. The bottom line is that you should be able to gather and transfer more energy with fewer damages to yourself."

As Cisco was speaking, the twitching slowly turned into a full smile, a proud one.

"You should get more chances to help Barry that way."

"Thank you," heartfully answered back Lady Indigo, gently stroking the fabric for an extra second before looking up at Vibe. "Are you sure about this?"

Cisco nodded as an answer, which prompted Lily to put the new mask on with evident confidence; "what are we waiting for? Let's take this on a test run."

Before Cisco could make a snarky comment about only doing it because Barry's life was the one at stake here, a gasp that was just as loud as it sounded painful interrupted them, and it was coming from the adjacent room. Almost instantly, both young people rushed in there but froze upon entering the room from the sight of what was in front of their eyes. Right in front of them, on the bed, Barry's glassy eyes and mouth were opened wide and his back was arching. It wasn't much, but enough that it wasn't touching the mattress anymore from his feet to his shoulders.

"BARRY!" Shouted Cisco, shivering.

Gasping and fighting every sharp and painful breathing, Barry yanked the IV out of his hand with one swift pull. Barry brought his free hand to his chest as each breath grew increasingly shorter and his eyes closed again, quickly falling back into unconsciousness.

"What's happening?" Screamed Caitlin's voice, suddenly appearing from out of nowhere and behind the two standing heroes.

"I don't know, he just st-" tried to explain Vibe, but the doctor rushed pass him without listening and cursed loudly under her breath.

"I think his lungs are collapsing," she said, running to the bed, "Cisco, help me! Hold him down!"

Getting to the bed with two long strides, Cisco complied and pushed his friend's weak body against the mattress, "what do you ne-"

"Let me try," asked Lily, interrupting Cisco and joining him next to the bed. The speedster lady had her gauntlets on, adding them to her new mask that was already around her head, "I can do this."

Both heads turned toward her at these words. While Cisco kept on staring for a few moments, Caitlin quickly sent back her attention at surveying the table and spotting all the tools she was about to use. First thing first; they needed to get Barry breathing, and they needed to do it now.

"I can heal him," reiterated Lily putting her hands onto Barry's chest and feeling his struggling body shaking dangerously under her palms.

Caitlin took one precious second to look up from her patient and glance interrogatively at both her engineer friend and the woman for a moment before she started staring straight at the mask.

"You already built it and gave it to her," the doctor commented, biting her lips. The longer they waited, the worst Barry would get. They needed to make a decision and needed to do it now. "Let's go!"

"Stay back. And, no matter what happens, don't touch him or me. Let me finish it," she said, pressing her hands harder on Barry's chest as the hero's best friends moved back. None of them were daring to blink; they couldn't risk missing a single second of the events that were about to unfold.

Getting ready, Lily took the deepest of breath and sent everything she had in her hands. Almost instantly, her entire arms, not only her hands, got covered in that beautiful blue energy that swiftly submerged the whole body of her patient under the impressed gasps of the two people observing the scene. It wasn't long before Lily's powers completely swept over her entire body, accompanied by a sharp and high piercing scream.

"Lily!" Shouted Cisco, reaching forward only to get harshly grabbed by Caitlin, which stopped him from touching the bubble of energy enveloping the two speedsters. Lily told them not to touch her. Plus, who knew the effects of breaking the contact?

The only relaxed person in the entire lab was the wounded man who stopped moving and had wholly surrendered to the smooth effect. Even Lily wasn't making a sound anymore; her eyes and mouth were tightly closed, and her whole face was tensed under intense stress and pain. It was almost like the world stopped spinning inside the healing energy. And, maybe outside of it too as the two scientists couldn't do a thing but stare and wait for forever until the almost-magical looking moment stopped, and the lady speedster dropped like a rock.

It was only then that everyone in the room realized Lily did the whole thing on her feet instead of seated. That's also when Cisco and Caitlin noticed how the young woman's red-light device on her gauntlet was flashing way faster than it had been the last two times. It couldn't be good.

Other than the thumping noise as she hit the ground, Jay's apprentice didn't make a single sound when her body failed her in the next moment.

"Oh my god," whispered Caitlin while running to the bed with Cisco in her tracks, unsure who to help first for a second before kneeling next to Lily. The heroine was losing blood by both her nose and ears.

"Please be okay," she whispered with her hands reaching out for the woman's neck. Right next to them, Cisco was orienting his attention to his too silent best friend; was all of this for nothing?

Jay was going to kill them if they were to allow his apprentice to die on their watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wouldn't dare kill her again, right...right?! Leave a comment!
> 
> Was the mask familiar for some of you? It should be ;)
> 
> Posting the last ''big'' chapter next friday, Feb. 1st, and the epilogue will follow on the 2nd. Get ready to say farewell to this story.


	21. After the Storm

The fast clicking of high heels rushing on the concrete ground was the first clue Iris and Jay had that someone was quickly approaching their position in the medical bay. Sure enough, a few moments later, the door opened to reveal Caitlin who had obviously put on her white blouse and black pants in a hurry. Even her hair was a mess with many rebellious locks dancing loosely out of her ponytail. To complete her I'm-late-for-work fashion, Caitlin had locked the top button of her blouse in the second hole on the opposite side which screwed up the whole order and left the last button orphaned at the bottom. And here Iris thought it wasn't possible to do this without noticing it right away.

Maybe Caitlin did realize her mistake but was in too much of a hurry to fix it since she was late, very late. To be exact, the doctor arrived over three hours later than her usual schedule, and it was almost noon now. Under these circumstances, it was no surprise to see the scientist being out of breath.

"I'm so sorry I'm late; I didn't even hear my alarm this morning. I slept past it by way too much," tried to explain Caitlin.

"No worry," calmly answered Iris before turning her attention back to her husband. Gently, she stroked the hero's forehead for a second before passing a hand in his hair.

Barry was now resting with an oxygen mask on his face and a pulse oximeter on the tip of his right index to keep an eye of his most essential vitals. Except, to be honest, they had been pretty dull to look at recently.

"You slept well?" Inquired Jay while scrutinizing the woman's face and expression.

"I did," answered Caitlin who slightly relaxed after she took a good look at the vitals on the monitor of her peacefully resting patient. "I'm sorry I didn't arrive earlier."

"Nonsense, you deserved the rest," said Iris who turned her head to look at her friend while taking hold on Barry's hand. "You haven't had a good night's sleep in the last two weeks."

The instant the last word left her lips, Barry's wife turned her head once more to look at the selfless hero whose head, hands and everything below his knees were the only parts of his body that wasn't all covered by bandages.

After Lily's last intervention, the speedster's vitals started finally getting stronger and more stable. Some colour was slowly returned to his pale cheeks, both his kidneys returned to their average strength, and his lungs kicked back in. All this slow, but continuous, improvements allowed the doctor to finally work on less urgent issues like piercing, emptying and cleaning all the pocket of pus distributed all over Barry's body before covering them with bandages. It wasn't the most beautiful job, and the lab smelled like dead at the end, but it would surely help Flash's metabolism to recover faster.

Right now, his vitals were all in the normal range with only one exception; the speed-force's activity in his cells was still really low. While it was undoubtedly abnormal, it wasn't concerning Caitlin who was almost sure it was going to kick back in soon enough. The only problem with this was that it was delaying Barry's recovering.

"We would've called you if anything had changed in his condition. You do know that right?" Iris assured the doctor who walked next to her and pressed her fingers against Barry's wrist.

It's not that she didn't trust her equipment; it just was reassuring and more humane to feel the beating pulse underneath the speedster' skin for herself. Strong and regular.

Caitlin was supposed to come back early in the morning like usual, but she ended up sleeping almost twelve hours straight. There was no denying the doctor had been running on fumes these past few weeks. Iris and Jay were right, she needed that rest, and she deserved it. Plus, as they said, it wasn't essential for her to stay glued on her patients at all time since Barry had significantly been improving and Lily finally woke up yesterday after being down for the count for days.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. How's Lily?" Finally asked Caitlin, letting go of Barry and turning around to look at the senior speedster.

"She was out of her room when I arrived a few moments ago, but Joe told me on his way out that he saw her walking around with your friend," he answered instantly, "I think he likes her."

"Friend?" Repeating Caitlin as she scanned around the room for a second, only realizing now that Cisco wasn't anywhere to be seen. Her motion only lasted for a second or so 'till her mind clicked and realized Jay wasn't talking about Cisco. Of course. She smiled; things were finally coming back to normal.

"Ralph, right?" She guessed. It had to be him.

"He knows she's too smart for him," commented Iris, smirking.

Snorting, Caitlin moved closer to the desk and grabbed the clean syringe needed for the daily blood analyses she scheduled earlier this week to keep a close eye on Barry's progress. If she was right, his speed healing was about to kick back in at any time now, if it hadn't already happened in the last few hours.

It was only when her eyes were glued to the microscope to meticulously examine the newly taken blood sample that the door of the lab opened and she heard Lily's tired but happy voice;

"I thought you were back on Earth 3," said the lady in S.T.A.R grey t-shirt and comfortable black pants to her mentor.

"I was waiting to see how you were before leaving," he answered, leaning forward to take the shortest and smallest woman in his arms.

"I'm in good hands," assured Olivia, "go. We'll come to get you as soon as there's any change in Barry's condition."

Jay shared a meaningful look with the doctor who looked up from her work and smiled, "what she said. I'm taking care of them. You can rest easy."

It's been a long moment now since the Earth 3's Flash and Lady Indigo disappeared on their earth and some criminals were starting to rise with the wishful thinking both speedsters were gone for good. Somebody needed to take care of that growing mess and, now that Barry and Lily were out of the danger zone, Jay could finally focus on his game.

Good thing this earth had Vibe and Elongated Man patrolling the town to ensure this situation wasn't going to happen on Earth 1. Speaking of, at this very instant, Cisco was assisting Joe and the CCPD on a robbery in progress. They had everything under control.

"Alright, I'll see you around," said Jay before saluting the crowd by tipping his hat. Without more ceremony, he took off in the next instant. No need for never-ending farewell as the speedster was planning to come back to say his thanks and goodbyes to Barry once the man would be in a better position to talk.

"And you, shouldn't you be resting?" Asked Caitlin to Lily who shrugged and approached the bed.

"I had enough of that for a while; I've been sleeping fo-"

"You've been unconscious for days, not sleeping. There's an important difference," softly, but sternly noted Caitlin who wasn't in the mood to start a fight but still deeply cared about the health of all her patients. She was just trying to be a friend, not a tyrannous doctor. "I'll make you a deal; if you go rest for at least four extra hours today, you can have the next night shift to look after Barry," she added, causing Lily smiled to widen.

"Before I go, can we go grab some pizza for lunch?" Suggested Olivia with enthusiasm. "with jalapenos, pepperoni, and..."

"And some olives maybe?" Suggested Caitlin, earning a broader smile.

That was Barry's favourite pizza and the one the hero would always bring back from that place in Keystone when he was in charge of getting food. For some reason, Caitlin had a feeling that Olivia and Barry could become good friends with time. It was almost a shame that Lily was going to leave and go back to her earth once she would be wholly recovered; it was nice having her around. At least it was easy to travel between dimensions.

Bringing back her attention in the present, and to the computers that just finished his analysis, Caitlin smiled. The results did confirm her hypothesis about Barry's speed-force; it was becoming active again. The hero truly was on his way to recovery.

Physical, at least.

The only concern left was how Barry was going to be, mentally, when he'll wake up after all the trauma he endured and the numerous close calls he had with death since he fought with Lily and Jay a week and a half ago. Plus, who knew if the Galway's serum was going to have long term effects?

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait too long to find out. At first, it wasn't much; Barry's fingers slightly twitched after Olivia's hand landed on his bandages covered shoulder and a pained grunt followed closely.

"Shh, it's okay, Barry. You're okay"

It was late at night, and Lily was alone with him. Or, more accurately, she was the only one awake and keeping watch since Joe was dozing in a chair in the back of the room.

Both these responses weren't too unusual from the speedster who's been having them a few times in the last couple of days. Usually, these reactions would go away pretty quickly, but, this time, it wasn't stopping. They didn't stop after a few seconds, nor thirty of them. Instead, Barry's groans grew stronger, and he weakly started shifting on his bed before tensing up all over which caused Lily to move her hand from his shoulder to his chest.

"Hey, take it easy," she gently said, trying to ease the sick man's suffering by massaging the bandage over his chest as gently as she could.

"Ooww," moaned the voice on the bed as Barry's whole body tensed intensively. Obviously, the lady speedster's motion wasn't smooth enough,

"I'm sorry," she swiftly apologized before taking her hand off him.

Barry's right hand went to grab her arm with a slow and weak motion. Well, it wasn't much of a movement at all considering how Flash's arm barely lifted from the mattress, but it was enough for Lily to notice it and gasp. Could it be? Her head moved so fast, to glance at Joe, that her single long blonde and red braid moved over the opposite shoulder.

"Joe, Joe!" She urgently called, daring for one second to look away. When she moved back her piercing glance, it was to find two green eyes staring at her in confusion, "Joe!" She called again.

She heard jostling behind her and, mere seconds later, the older man suddenly appeared by her side.

"Oh God, Barr, can you hear me?"

The sick speedster's expressionless eyes seemed glued on the first person to talk to him, Lily. His reaction pushed Joe's anxiety a tad higher. He needed to calm down; Barry had been sleeping for a very long time, so it was no surprise the hero was confused.

"Can you-"

"I'll go get Caitlin," interrupted Olivia before taking off running at normal speed since she hadn't been cleared to use her powers yet and the situation didn't seem urgent enough to break that order.

Once the young lady was gone, Flash's eyes finally decided to look straight at Joe and acknowledge his presence with his eyelids quickly closing and opening, which was tearing them up. Meanwhile, his lips were starting to shake under the oxygen mask.

"It's over, son, you're back," started to say Joe while taking a hold on the mask and lowering it down Barry's neck upon seeing the moving lips trying to form words.

"J... J... oe," slowly pronounced Barry, with difficulty, before smiling.

"Yeah, it's me, you're back on Earth 1, at S.T.A.R. Labs. It's over," repeated the detective, uncertain if the hero heard it the first time. The way the sick man sighed in relief at these words proved it was the first-time comprehension hit him.

"O... ver," repeated Barry while closing his eyes, but only for an instant before he asked the first thought on his mind. "Everyone?"

You could always count on Barry to worry about the entire world's wellbeing before his own, even when he was in a medical bed. Or, more like, especially if he was laying in one of these.

"Everyone's alright, Barr, you did it. Jay's back on his Earth and his apprentice is at the lab," explained Joe, wincing in sympathy when Barry's hand went to his chest and his whole face tensed up again.

"How are you feeling?" Joe tried to ask, only to get interrupted by Caitlin and Olivia who rushed into the room. The doctor was wearing her pyjamas and walking barefoot on the ground, an outfit that was starting to become an official doctor uniform here.

"Barry, how are you?" The doctor instantly asked, not realizing she was repeating the exact same question that had been sent a mere moment before, nor did she see Cisco approaching, fully dressed. It was hard not to be alerted that something was going on considering how Lily was running and shouting to get Caitlin's attention a moment earlier.

Feeling his anxiety leaving at the sight of his friends, all standing and looking good, Barry laughed in relief, only to get his laughs interrupted by an unexpected series of loud sneezing that was almost resembling choking sounds. His coughing fit lasted long enough for Caitlin to jog to the corner of the room for the water pitcher, prepare a glass in a hurry and come back.

"There, take it," she instructed to the speedster before handing the glass to him.

"Thanks," rasped Barry after his first long gulp, "hope you got their information," he added chuckling.

"Whose information?" Simultaneously asked Joe and Cisco.

"The herd of horses who ran me over," joked The Flash, before taking another gulp and putting the glass on the table next to him. Taking a shaky breath, he tried his best to smile before looking up at his two best friends, now side by side next to him. "I told you I could do this. I told you I wasn't going to die."

The silence that instantly fell in the room was deafening, and everyone surrounding the bed started uncomfortably to look at each other like someone just killed their puppy. Barry's already uneasy breath caught in his throat and a cold shiver passed in his back;

"What?" He weakly rasped.

"You... you didn't make it, Barry," slowly said Caitlin, noticeably avoiding eye contact. "Well, you weren't going to. You were dying." She corrected.

Despite the clean water the speedster just drank a moment earlier, Barry's throat went parched. Wait, what? He didn't feel dead. Trying to get a better view of his team and family without twisting his neck, Barry pushed himself on his forearms, "what happened? How am I still here?"

Looking down on his body, Barry took notice of how he looked. "And why do I look like a mummy? "

"As I predicted; your body couldn't take the shock of the serum feasting on your speedster and the withdrawal symptoms of the V9. Your organs were starting to fail, fast. You've been out for over a week and a half," explained Caitlin, eyeing the quickly increasing blood pressure and pulse of her patient on the monitor as she kept on talking.

"I don't... how... how am I still alive?"

"She d-" started Joe, only to get interrupted by Olivia who was still standing a little further away from the bed than the rest of the team.

"I did it. I saved your life."

"Ho-"

"Like this," said Lily, opening her palms oriented toward the ceiling and allowing the mysterious and beautiful looking, floating, blue energy to envelope her limbs.

"Whoa!" Exclaimed Barry, jostling enough for his weak muscles to fail him and make him fall back entirely on the mattress, a few inches down, where he let out a yell at contact.

"For some reason, Lily here has a second set of power other than her speed. She can transfer part of her healing energy, and her speed-force, into people to exponentially boost their system. She tried a few times before she was able to get you out of the critical zone," said Caitlin.

"She's incredible. We owe her your life, man," approved Cisco.

Still shocked by the news, Barry gasped and shook his head at the same time he was putting himself back in his earlier position. Once that was done, he looked up at the young woman. "I guess thanks are in order."

"You're welcome," Olivia answered whole-heartedly, smiling tenderly to the other speedster who yawned loudly, "I should probably let you rest."

The sick hero's eyelids were quickly flickering in an apparent struggle to stay awake, and he fell back on the bed.

"We'll be there when you wake up, and we'll tell you everything," added Caitlin. She probably should've checked him thoroughly while he was conscious, but that ship had already sailed. Before her sentence was over Barry was already completely slack, getting the sleep he needed and earned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? I can be nice when I want to ;) Leave me your thoughts
> 
> I'll post the epilogue tomorrow for my swan song as I might not post after this story. Still thinking about it. Thanks to every single person who ever read, voted and/or commented on a story. You guys truly are the best!


	22. Epilogue

One week later, purple, yellow and blue flashes of lightning were beautifully mixing all around the pipeline as two speedsters were taking laps around their improvised training track. After a moment, the spectacle that had been lighting up the place started gradually to slow down 'til the movements stopped altogether at the entry and revealed Barry and Olivia wearing S.T.A.R. comfy training clothes. Puffing, Olivia leaned forward and put her hands on her thighs.

"You... you are fast," she said, stating the obvious to Barry who was standing tall next to her and barely breathing a tad faster than usual.

Instead of recuperating like his younger friend, the CSI was smiling, and his eyes were shining brightly with joy and excitement after this short side by side run with the new Earth 3 speedster. Running for just the second time since recovering from this whole ordeal had been terrific. Just like Barry suspected it, when they were in the past, Olivia wasn't as fast as he was, but she was compensating with another fantastic set of power.

"You're not bad yourself," he commented between two profound breathes. "Are you sure you can't stay? I'm sure we would make quite the team."

Straightening up, Lily smiled. "We would, wouldn't we?"

"I don't have any doubt on that one, and you can quote me on that. It's been nice having you around and hanging with you. Well, that was when I wasn't unconscious," said Barry.

The girl was many years younger than the CSI and still had a lot to learn about being a speedster, and a hero, but she was a great person. Lily was an enthusiastic and kind being filled with bright energy.

"What can I say? Maybe we were already a team in another life. Or in another universe," answered Olivia before looking down at her watch. Jay was supposed to arrive at any time now, that was if he wasn't already waiting for them in the breaching room.

"If you ever need help again, I'll come running."

"Same to you," replied the young lady speedster before starting to walk at normal speed toward the hallway, "come on, we should probably go meet them."

Following her movement, Barry positioned himself at her side while they continued their conversation. "Come visit, alright? No need to wait for the next end of the world to come to say hi."

Lily chuckled, "I'll do my best, that's if you can stay out of trouble long enough for that."

Barry laughed back while unconsciously scratching the sole bandage placed at the base of his neck, right at the site of the injections he received before getting the pump. It was where the infections started and where it was finally going to end. The healing scab hiding underneath was the only remaining physical sign Barry had left of his sickness, and it also was the only discomfort the CSI was still feeling. Everything considered; it was a real miracle.

After taking a small detour to pick Olivia's duffle bag, the duo of young speedsters made their way into the breaching room where they found Jay talking with Caitlin, Cisco, and Ralph. All of them turned their head at the sight of the young people's entrance. The last time Jay was on this Earth, a few days ago, Barry was awake and alert but still hadn't been allowed to get out of the bed. To see the hero up and about was a sight for sore eyes.

"There they are," exclaimed Jay, "how are you?"

"I'm great," answered Barry just a tad too quickly.

It was fast enough to raise suspicions, especially from Caitlin who frowned at him. "Really?"

"I am," assured Barry, his hand going up at his neck once more. "It's-"

"Don't scratch that," said the doctor simultaneously.

"It stings!" Protested Barry, completing his sentence and closing his right fist to stop his fingers from getting even closer than they already were from the bandage. The temptation to go ahead and scratch it was so high; it was pure torture not to do it.

"Well, thanks for saving Lily and me. Thanks for everything," gratefully answered Jay who extended his hand and offered it to Barry who didn't waste a second to take it.

"You're welcome. It's always such a pleasure to get kidnapped and beat up," lightly joked the man, causing Jay to chuckle before letting go of Barry's hand. Yeah, their little adventures together were never dull, for sure.

"Maybe we can try once to get together without having the fate of either world hanging in the balance," proposed the senior speedster to the group.

"I know I'd like that," said Olivia, smiling warmly and looking at Barry who nodded and answered to her smile in the same way.

"I second that," loudly added Cisco in the back, interrupting the moment between the speedsters and causing Barry to laugh softly before turning back his attention to the Earth 3's heroes.

"I should be the one thanking you for saving my life. All of you, actually. Thank you," said the CSI to the whole room as he turned on himself to make eye contact with every single person present in the room. In the same motion, he spotted his wife entering the room, but staying a little further back.

"Let's call it teamwork. And let's also agree for you to not die on us too often, alright?" Said the team's doctor who was trying to act seriously but found herself unable to hide the twitching at the corner of her smile.

"Get home safe, Flash," said Ralph to the senior speedster, "it was a real pleasure fighting alongside you."

"Same. As lovely at this moment is and as much as I would love to stay longer, we should probably go if we don't want to be late; Joan is waiting for us for dinner and you know how she gets," joked Jay to the suddenly confused faces that stared straight at him.

"Who?" slowly inquired Barry, frowning.

"Yeah, Joan, my wife," spoke Jay, losing his enthusiastic attitude and slowly looking at the doctor first, then at the Barry, interrogatively. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh. Joan, right," quickly corrected Barry with his shoulders visibly relaxing and his smile returning his lips, "of course, Joan. I thought I understood something else. I guess I'm still a little tired, nothing more. Don't worry about it, and yeah, you should probably go now."

Reassured, Jay turned around and tipped his Flash hat, saluting everyone at once and making sure with one glance that his apprentice was ready to go home. The last few weeks had been quite a ride, but it was time for each team to go their separate ways. Barry, Caitlin, and Ralph moved back toward the entry of the room, where Iris was still positioned, to make space for Vibe and his soon-to-appear breach.

"See you around," greeted Iris as Cisco rose his hand and started calling his vibrational energy, "don't be strangers."

In the next instant, the duo of the Earth 3 speedsters was gone, in a flash, leaving the whole group to an uncomfortable silence.

"Am I the only one who didn't know about Jay having a wife?" Finally asked Iris, for the rest of them as they all swiftly moved to face each other.

"That's because he doesn't, or at least, he didn't have one before. I'm pretty certain of it. Changing the timeline and putting it back must've caused that change," said Barry before anyone could intervene.

"But you sai-"

"Then, why did y-"

Barry shook his head to interrupt Vibe and Ralph's sentences, "I know from experience how there's no putting everything back as it was once you start playing with time. Jay's the one who taught me that. I can't allow him to start thinking his wife is some mistake or shouldn't be there. Or that his whole life with her is a lie. He deserves happiness. And, considering how bad messing with time can get, I say we should be happy with this consequence."

Finishing his sentence, he looked up tenderly at his own wife. Yeah, Jay deserved the same. It was about damn time to see something positive coming out of their problems instead of seeing a bigger catastrophe waiting at the corner.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Team Flash to come to the same conclusion.

"Alright, I agree," said Cisco, nodding, a motion that got mimicked by everyone in the room, one by one.

"Thanks, guys," added Barry, looking pensively at the exact spot from where he just saw Olivia and Jay disappear.

Looking into the future, Barry had complete faith the Crimson Comet was going to make a great hero out of his young apprentice. Lady Indigo already had the heart of a hero and the burning desire to help people, what else was there to ask for?

One thing for sure, Earth 3 was going to be between good hands and Barry was looking forward to the next team up with Olivia. Even with the short amount of time he got the spent with her, he could already tell she was one of a kind...

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, the end of the story.What was your favorite part of the story?
> 
> For those who've read Long Way Home, are you happy about the end I gave to this version of the character? For those you never saw the Earth 1 version of Olivia; what do you think of her?
> 
> A HUGE thank you to every single person who took the time to read all the 60K + words and even more to every single person who commented and shared the story. I'm writing these adventures for you and it really means the world when I see the comments and the support you're giving. So, THANKS!


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